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City Challenge is an event organisation that holds motorsports, arts and entertainment events in major city centres. It has its headquarters in Berlin, Germany.
Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3,748,148 (2018) inhabitants make it the second most populous city proper of the European Union after London. The city is one of Germany's 16 federal states. It is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, and contiguous with its capital, Potsdam. The two cities are at the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg capital region, which is, with about six million inhabitants and an area of more than 30,000 km², Germany's third-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Main regions.
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north, and the Alps, Lake Constance and the High Rhine to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.
City Challenge CEO Hartmut Beyer started to plan a race circuit downtown Bucharest, Romania, in 2004. After fulfilling the role as organiser and promoter for the FIA GT Championship rounds in Bucharest 2007, 2008 (under the name of Bucharest Ring [1] ) and Budapest, Hungary, in 2009, Mr. Beyer and his team performed negotiations with multiple cities around the world in order to establish its own GT championship that will take place from 2013 onwards. [2]
Bucharest is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, at 44°25′57″N26°06′14″E, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than 60 km (37.3 mi) north of the Danube River and the Bulgarian border.
The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout the years has visited other continents including Asia and South America. At the end of 2009, the championship was replaced by the FIA GT1 World Championship, which morphed into the FIA GT Series for 2013.
The Bucharest Ring was a street circuit in the Romanian capital city of Bucharest and was initiated by City Challenge GmbH.
The inaugural Baku City Challenge event was being held in Baku, Azerbaijan, during 26–28 October 2012. The event attracted 42,000 spectators over the weekend, about 150 national and international journalists were reporting about the event and 100 crew members of the TV production provided the footage either live or as highlight in over 120 countries, reaching a total of 650 million households. [3]
Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located 28 metres (92 ft) below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level. Baku lies on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, alongside the Bay of Baku. At the beginning of 2009, Baku's urban population was estimated at just over two million people. Officially, about 25 percent of all inhabitants of the country live in Baku's metropolitan area. Baku is the sole metropolis in Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, and has an 11 km (6.8 mi) long border with Turkey in the northwest.
On day time, the Historic Grand Prix and the Gymkhana Drift Series acted as support races of the Baku event. The evening show programme included the “CoGo show”, featuring international artists, and on-stage performances by, among others, DJ Pancho and Rafet el Roman.
Gymkhana is a type of motorsport, known as Motorkhana in Australia and New Zealand, and Autotesting in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Similar to autocross, the goal of gymkhana is to achieve the fastest time possible; memorizing the course is a significant part of achieving a fast time. The name is loaned from the equestrian discipline of gymkhana.
A total of 13 teams, 24 cars of the makes BMW, McLaren, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Chevrolet participated during the City Challenge event on the 2,144-metre-long racetrack that was homologated with FIA grade 3. Among the drivers were five times DTM champion Bernd Schneider, former Formula 1 driver and 2008 Le Mans class winner Jos Verstappen, [4] 1997 F1 World Champion and Indy 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve [5] and Mathias Lauda, son of three-time F1 World Champion Niki Lauda.
Johannes Franciscus "Jos" Verstappen is a Dutch former racing driver. After his F1 career Jos Verstappen has won races in A1 Grand Prix and Le Mans Series LMP2 races. Prior to his F1 debut in 1994, he was also the German Formula Three champion and Masters of Formula Three winner in 1993. Jos was the most successful Dutch F1 racing driver before he retired and started mentoring his son Max in Formula 1.
Jacques Joseph Charles Villeneuve is a Canadian professional auto racing driver and amateur musician. Villeneuve currently competes in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, driving the #32 Chevrolet Camaro for Go Fas Racing in the Elite 1 class. He is the son of Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve, and is the namesake of his uncle, who was also a racer. Villeneuve won the 1995 CART Championship, the 1995 Indianapolis 500 and the 1997 Formula One World Championship, making him only the third driver after Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi to achieve such a feat. As of 2018, no other Canadian has won the Indianapolis 500 or the Formula One Drivers' title.
Mathias Lauda is an Austrian race car driver currently racing for Aston Martin Racing as a factory driver in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He is the son of three-time Formula One world champion Niki Lauda and his first wife, Marlene. He has a brother, Lukas, who is currently his manager.
The City Challenge GT main race was won by drivers Frédéric Makowiecki and Stef Dusseldorp, driving the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 for HEXIS Racing. [6] Frank Kechele and Mathias Lauda driving the BMW Z4 GT3 for Vita4One Racing Team were ranked second and the podium was concluded by Yelmer Buurman and Nicolaus Mayr-Melnhof, also driving a BMW Z4 GT3 for Vita4One Racing Team.
City Challenge has the ambition to grow to a stable event calendar that contains a minimum of five events in Europe, Middle East, America and Asia. [7] The calendar is to be announced.
José Pedro Mourão Lamy Viçoso, OIH, known as Pedro Lamy is a Portuguese professional racing driver currently racing in endurance races teaming up with Mathias Lauda and gentleman driver Paul Dalla Lana. He was the first Portuguese driver to score a point in a Formula One World Championship event, in the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, for Minardi.
Enrique Antônio Langue e Silvério de Bernoldi is a Brazilian professional racing driver who raced for the Arrows Formula One team in 2001 and 2002, and was the test driver for BAR Honda between 2004 and 2006. He entered IndyCar racing in 2008, and competed in the FIA GT World Championship between 2009 and 2011, in addition to entering multiple other competitions.
Dijon-Prenois is a 3.801 km (2.362 mi) motor racing circuit located in Prenois, near Dijon, France. The undulating track is noted for its fast, sweeping bends.
Jeroen Bleekemolen is a Dutch professional racing driver. In the Chrysler Viper GTS-R he drove in the FIA GT Championship, with great success. He competed in the very competitive German Formula Three Championship and drove a number of times at the Masters of Formula 3 at Circuit Zandvoort, the unofficial F3 World Championship. Together with Opel he raced in the DTM. In 2005 Jeroen Bleekemolen competes in the ELF BRL V6.
Tom Romeo Coronel is a Dutch professional racing driver. Tom's twin brother Tim is also a racer, just like their father Tom Coronel Sr. His most important results are winning the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 race in 1997, the Formula Nippon championship in 1999, and the 2006 and 2009 World Touring Car Championship Independents' Trophy. As of September 2016, Tom Coronel has driven over 1,000 races.
Andreas Wirth is a German racing driver currently acting as reserve and development driver for World Endurance Championship team CEFC Manor TRS Racing.
Vitaphone Racing is a German racing team who participate in the FIA GT Championship. The team is actually Bartels Motor & Sport GmbH but runs under the title of their primary sponsor, Vitaphone GmbH. In 2011 Vitaphone Racing was renamed Vita4One. They have successfully raced the Maserati MC12 GT1 since 2005, becoming one of the most successful GT teams in the series with five FIA GT1 Teams' Championship and four FIA GT1 Drivers' Championship. The team consists of 32 people and is led by Rafael Calafell. Their chief drivers are Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini.
Bobby Verdon-Roe is a British professional racing driver who has raced in various formats of motor sport throughout his career. He has won Formula Renault, TVR Tuscan and Historic Formula One Championships.
The 2009 FIA GT Championship season was the thirteenth season of the FIA GT Championship for grand tourer cars competing in the GT1 and GT2 categories. The season began 3 May, and ended 25 October after eight races. This was also the final season of a combined GT1 and GT2 championship before the launch of the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2010.
Van Merksteijn Motorsport is a Dutch motorsport company active in both circuit racing and rallying. Established in 2008, under the ownership of Peter van Merksteijn Sr. and with Gerard Grouve as team principal, this motorsport company won both the LMP2 class title in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the gruelling the Le Mans Series in its first year of competition. Only one year later the team from Hengelo were again unbeatable when contesting the Dutch Rally Championship. For the 2011 season, the team has once more undertaken very ambitious plan: Peter van Merksteijn Jr. will compete in the World Rally Championship alongside Peter van Merksteijn Sr. driving a Citroën DS3 WRC.
The 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship was the third and final season of the SRO Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, an auto racing series for grand tourer cars. The 2012 championship, which opened to GT3 Series Grand Touring cars, featured two titles awarded to the highest scoring competitors over the course of the season: the GT1 World Championship for Drivers and the GT1 World Championship for Teams. The series underwent regulation changes in 2012 with GT3 cars replacing the GT1 category vehicles used in the previous two seasons of the World Championship. Hexis AMR, now under the title Hexis Racing, returned as the defending Teams' World Champions, while German drivers Michael Krumm and Lucas Luhr didn't return to the series to defend their Drivers' World Championships.
Grégoire Demoustier is a French racing driver, who competes in the World Touring Car Championship for Sébastien Loeb Racing.
Nikolaus "Niki" Mayr-Melnhof is an Austrian racing driver currently competing in the Blancpain Sprint Series for Phoenix Racing (Germany). He previously competed in the FIA GT1 World Championship for Vita4one Racing
The 2013 FIA GT Series was the first season following on from the demise of the SRO Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, an auto racing series for grand tourer cars. The series underwent changes in 2013, retaining GT3 cars as the mainstay, but creating sub-classes for Pro, Pro-Am and Gentleman driver line-ups. All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport did not return to defend their Teams' World Champions, instead moving to the World Touring Car Championship with one of the Drivers' World Champions Marc Basseng beside René Münnich, team director of All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport, and defending 2012 WTCC champion Rob Huff.
The Baku World Challenge is an international motorsport event in Baku, Azerbaijan. The event is held on a temporary street circuit on closed public roads.
Akhil Rabindra is an Indian racing driver and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. For the season 2019, Akhil Rabindra is selected for the Aston Martin Drivers Academy and will be racing in the GT4 European Series and will drive an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for PROsport Performance in the 2019 GT4 European Series. Rabindra teamed up with 23-year-old Swiss racer Florian Thoma. The 2019 GT4 European Series began at Autodromo Nazionale Monza Italy on 12-14 April where Akhil finished 8th and 7th in 2 races securing 10 points. Akhil with his team PROsport Performance achieved the first podium for the New Aston Martin Vantage GT4 by finishing 2nd in the 2019 24H GT Series European held at Mugello Circuit Italy on 29 to 30 March 2019, Won in the 2019 24H GT Series European at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Belgium on 19 to 20 April 2nd in the Race-1 at the GT4 European Series held at Brands Hatch UK on 4 to 5 May 2019 and 3rd in the GT4 class at 2019 24H GT Series European held at Brno Circuit Czech Republic on 24 to 25 May.
William Ryan "Billy" Johnson is an American professional sports car and stock car racing driver. He is the 2016 IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge GS Champion. He currently competes part-time in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship, driving for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing UK in the No. 66 Ford GT.
The 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship is an ongoing motor racing championship for Formula One cars which marks the 70th running of the Formula One World Championship. It is recognised by the governing body of international motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. Starting in March and ending in December, the championship is being contested over twenty-one Grands Prix. Drivers are competing for the title of World Drivers' Champion, and teams for the World Constructors' Champion. The 2019 championship saw the running of the 1000th World Championship race, which was held in China.
The 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 29 April 2018 at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan. The race was the fourth round of the 2018 Formula One World Championship, the second running of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship and the third time the Baku City Circuit was being used to host a Formula One race.
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