Officials from the country of Bahrain, near Saudi Arabia, said Monday that they want to host a NASCAR race at their Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), a road course.
“Hosting NASCAR is on the minds of the management at the BIC,” said BIC director of PR and government affairs Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa who has just returned from the US after heading a fact-finding delegation. As part of their fact finding officials attended a NASCAR race and that seemed to peak their interest; it’s not known which race they attended.
“We did go and see a NASCAR race and an Indy 500 single-seater race there. We not only looked at things from the racing side, but also from a marketing perspective,” said Shaikh Salman speaking at a BIC Press conference at the Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain Resort and Spa. “The NASCAR race was very good to see, but we are yet to look at how that system would work here because we don’t have an oval. But it is something that we are looking into.
“It’s not to say that it only works on an oval. I think we will go through our checklist and see if everything makes sense,” he said. “I would rather go to a person who says ‘I am dying to go to Bahrain’ than someone who says ‘how much are you going to pay me to come’. The decisions that we do make are put on a business model and feasibility decides,” he added. “There is an interest in North America. Generally, here in the Middle East, we look to Europe. Everyone used to say ‘if you are going to bring a race, look to Europe, look at what they are doing, and try to do the same’. “But we have already shown that we are different by looking East instead of West.”
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I guess that’s 1 way of getting our gas money we spend at the pump back.
Hum, I wonder if they have a fast camel with a wing and ground effects would want to try and qualify.
no no no no no no we cant have our favorite drivers putting there life in danger to please some saudi’s
Never happen. It would be a nightmare trying to get 43 teams all the way over to Saudi. It’s not like going to Canada or Mexico.
yeah.Do that so terrorists can car bomb our drivers.I think not.
no no no no no. bad idea. don’t do it.
….Nah.
as funny as that might actually be I don’t think it would be good for the drivers ……. makes me wonder if Bin Laden is a NASCAR fan too lol
If those guys want to see a NASCAR race, come over here. They’ve got plenty of money, hell I just gave them $75 when I filled up my truck. PLEASE bring some of our money back. Or better yet, stick to that F1 stuff.
I say go for it…if F1 can pull it off then NASCAR sure as hell can! That track is amazing and would be an excellent show for the fans.
they could call it the bomber 500 and have ali baba sing the national anthem, god i hate that nascar thinks they need to go global
Anyone who thinks there’s a legitimate terrorist threat in Bahrain is an ignorant, xenophobic. Seriously.
F1 races there, and radical Islamics hate Europeans just as much as they do us, and there’s been no problems at all.
With that said, it’s too much of a logistics nightmare to be accomplished. Maybe an exhibition would work, like the Japan races back in the 90’s.
Jiffy is 100% right. The season is full as it is, going to a different continent would be almost impossible during the regular season it would have to be exhibition.
F#@k that its a pain for the teams. plus theres plenty of fans and traks here in the states. i can see going to canada but y even mexico? forget that. put them on dirt here first!
talk about a possible mis-communication.
Ali-baba meet LeRoy Johnson.
Its funny that an outside group compared IRL to NASCAR side by side and picked NASCAR.
I think it would be an awesome idea. NASCAR raced an exhibition race in Japan a few years back, if some of you didn’t know.