A1 GP Race Weekend with Designers Way Vacation Club - DWVC
Members of Designer Way Vacation Club (DWVC) can get a weeks bed and breakfast for two covering the race weekend at the Sabie Valle Inn for just £227!
The Sabie Valle Inn is perfectly situated in the centre of Sabie, in the Mpumalanga Province close to all the attractions the area has to offer including being a stones throw away from the circuit.
This delightfully quaint Inn offers a restaurant, bar and swimming pool where guests can unwind after a great day's sight seeing or a day at the races.
The hotel has 23 en-suite hotel rooms and 7 self catering cabins equipped with oven, microwave oven, fridge, cutlery, crockery, glassware and bed linen. All rooms are en-suite with tea/coffee making facilities and TV.
Sabie is a popular tourist destination with breathtaking natural scenery and spectacular water falls into pristine mountain streams. Sabie is ideally situated as a base from which to explore the rich history of the area. Places such as God's Window, Blyde River Canyon, Lisbon Falls, Berlin Falls and Kruger National Park are only a short drive away. Eleven km from Sabie are the Mac Mac Pools with attractive picnic areas.
The concept of A1 GP is rather novel since it’s billed as the world or nations cup of motorsports. The series allows countries to enter a single car per nation to race for the A1 GP Championship.
Currently there are 22 Nations competing in the spec series, which borrows its race format style from various racing series. The A1 GP race weekend seems loosely modeled after the GP2 format with a morning sprint race and an afternoon main event.
The A1 GP is a spec series utilizing identical Lola chassis fitted with Zytec normally aspirated 3.4 litre V-8 engines. The Lola is built to contemporary race car standards loosely resembling a modern day F1 chassis. And the A1’s front wing treatment reminds of the much unloved Jordan Grand Prix EJ13.
This design solution was taken in an apparent attempt to create ease of overtaking for the drivers when closely following behind another competitor. As there have been complaints of lack of overtaking in Formula 1 in recent years.
The Zytec “lumps” produce 520bhp with an added power “boost” of 30bhp on tap for a limited number of maximum 550bhp power “squirts.” (drivers get 4 power “boosts” for the sprint race and 8 for the feature race). The extremely lightweight Zytec power plant is required to last an entire season without rebuilding.
Taking a page from Formula 1 the teams are mandated to make one compulsory pit stop for fresh rubber during the 70 minute feature race. Yet unlike F1, the pit crew consists of only six members with two jack-men and one man per wheel who must remove and install the wheel by himself. There’s no refueling during the pit stops, which must occur prior to a minimum number of laps left before the end of the race.
The top six finishers earn points towards the championship with a maximum of 10 being awarded the winner. Better yet is the prize fund, which pays $300,000 to first place, $200,000 to second and $100,000 to third.
France won the inaugural Nations cup in 2005/06 while Germany won the 2006/2007 season with 19 year old phenomenon Nico Hulkenberg. Team Germany is owned by Willi Weber, with the young German under Weber’s tutelage. You may recall Weber being Michael Schumacher’s manager.
So can the A1 GP compete with Formula 1? Wisely the series runs opposite of the normal open wheel racing calendar with visits to regions currently not hosting F1 races. Although the fledgling series is in its infancy, it appears to have all the right ingredients to succeed
The 2007/08 season is at its midway point with five races past and 5 races still to go and New Zealand currently hold a narrow lead. On the 24th of February A1 GP arrives in South Africa at the Durban Street Circuit, which is similar to Formula 1’s Monaco circuit in that it is a normal road used by the general public, closed off for the week of the race.
Why not take advantage of the discounts available as a member of DWVC and take in a race while enjoying a holiday in a warm, dry and comfortable climate. To book this resort contact your account manager at Timelinx’s reservations office on 0870 738 0080 or log onto our website.
Written by Keith Martin (28/01/08).
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