SPARKY on the BGP

So the war is over. No, not Iraq, the saviour of the British Grand Prix. Finally it has been confirmed on the 2005 calendar with a new 5-year deal. The BRDC have had many sleepless nights over the future of the Silverstone racetrack, but on Thursday they and Ecclestone agreed that the race would go ahead. Great news for us, great news for all the local teams, even our Sports minister Richard Caborn who hasn’t really helped over the last few years is happy, so everyone’s a winner!

So what does this mean for our 2005 calendar? Well, we have 19 races to contend with, great news if you have a T.V Licence, bad news if you don’t. Nothing’s new with the season opener, as it’ll be kicking off in down-under Australia as usual. We will be making a visit to Turkey in August with the curtain closing in mid October in China. There are no less than five back-to-back race weekends, with July being the busiest month with four races. Once again it has been promised that it will be an unmissable season, with our only worry being relocating Sunday Lunch in front of the television.

Make sure these dates are in your diary!

March 6 AUSTRALIA  Melbourne

March 20 MALAYSIA Sepang

April 3 BAHRAIN Sakhir

April 24 SAN MARINO  Imola

May 8 SPAIN Barcelona

May 22 MONACO Monte Carlo

May 29 EUROPE Nurburgring

June 12 CANADA Montreal

June 19 USA Indianapolis

July 3 FRANCE Magny-Cours

July 10 BRITAIN Silverstone

July 24 GERMANY Hockenheim

July 31 HUNGARY Hungaroring

August 21 TURKEY Istanbul

September 4 ITALY Monza

September 11  BELGIUM Spa

September 25  BRAZIL Interlagos

October 9 JAPAN Suzuka

October 16 CHINA Shanghai

Nicholas Sparkes