Malaysia gears up for F1 finale

Malaysian organisers have braced themselves to conduct the grand finale of the Formula One racing calendar - - the 2000 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix - - to be held on October 22 at the Sepang International Circuit, 60 kms from Kuala Lumpur.

It is the final leg in the Formula One calendar which kicked off in Melbourne, Australia, in March.

"We expect 100,000 fans to witness the race in person. Last year, the first year it was conducted, there were 80,000 spectators at the Sepang F1 circuit," executive director Adnan Shamsuddin said in Bombay on Monday.

Giving more details about the event and the 5.542-km state-of-the-art track built two years ago at a cost of US$ 120 million, Shamsuddin said that it is the only track in the world which allowed the supersleek cars to race each other at speeds over 300 kms per hour.

"We have widened the track at an important bend and sharpened it too as compared to last year," another organising committee member in charge of sponsorship, Anis Ahmed, said.

The Malaysian tourism department too has pitched in to promote the event in a big way by trying to woo Indian visitors, among others, to their country for the big race.

With the sport evincing tremendous interest in India, and a good number of motorsport fans expected to travel for the race, the Malaysian F1 organisers have appointed Trust Travel and Tours as the official travel agents to co-ordinate and take care of travel arrangements for the big event. The company can be contacted at www.trusttt@vsnl.com and at trusttravelandtours.com .