Thursday, June 11, 2009

Circuit racing in Switzerland not allowed - politicians think again

Switzerland is a small country, with roughly seven million inhabitants and to not too much land to be spared. But still Switzerland hosted the famous GP Berne during the 30ies and 50ies. Great cars (Meredes, Alfa, Auto-Union, etc.) and drivers (Ascari, Lang, Fangio, etc.) raced against each other to win the Grand Prix. To celebrate these old good old times there's even a Memorial Grand Prix Suisse in Bern organized this year! And my Devin-Triumph (1957) has been accepted as an entry.
But in this same country circuit racing has been forbidden after the Le Mans accident in 1955. Now, you would think, that's quite a long time ago. And it is. But nothing has changed with the regulation since then. During the last few years there were some initiatives to allow circuit racing again. Sadly enough this idea was coupled with the idea to attract a formula 1 grand prix. With all the bad press around formula 1 and the fear of people to host such a monster event, plus all the "green" tendencies populating the newspapers, the initiatives were not successful in the political landscape.
Dear politicians please think again!
Circuit racing is much safer than hill climbs that are still allowed in Switzerland.
It's probably almost impossible to find investors for a racing circuit if racing is not allowed.
The lack of racing circuits forces Swiss racing drivers (amateurs and professionals) to go to other countries to drive their cars.
The lack of racing circuits also makes it difficult for Swiss car builders to test their cars.
Switzerland has been a pioneer in many things, it could be a pioneer with electrical or hybrid cars again. Having a race track in Switzerland would allow these pioneers to showcase the result of their work.
And last but not least, building and maintaining a racing circuit would create jobs and help an offsite region to become more attractive for visitors.
And and and ....
There are so many good reasons to get rid of the "no circuit racing" law to just enable new initiatives to happen. Let then the local people decide whether they would like to have a race track or not. Let's not think about formula 1 here, it's not even relevant in this context.

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