A1gp Cancels Two More Races
The troubled A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has been forced to axe its remaining 2009 rounds, in China and Malaysia, as rumours mount that the series is set be shelved.
Three weeks after it was forced to cancel its high-profile season-opener in Australia, the troubled A1GP series has also axed rounds two and three of its proposed fifth season.
The Australian event, which was to have seen A1GP replace the IndyCar Series as co-headliner alongside the national V8 Supercar championship, was thrown into confusion at the last minute, when it became clear that the World Cup of Nations ran out of time to ship its cars and equipment ‘down under’ following a summer of financial worries, including the liquidation of its British operations division.
Although series chairman Tony Teixiera continues to claim that a rescue plan is in the pipeline, as administrators for the company try to sell its hardware as a going concern, round two in China has now been cancelled, with the following event, due for Sepang in Malaysia, also looking unlikely to happen.
The races had been scheduled for 15th November and 6th December respectively, rounding out the 2009 portion of the winter calendar.
The season is due to resume in South Africa on 28th February, potentially given organisers time to sort the issues out although it may be that decision on the series’ entire future is decided before then.
Teixiera claimed that 19 teams had been ready to race in Australia, but none currently have cars, which have now been placed removed from A1GP’s Silverstone base after the lease was allowed to lapse.
