The Baku City Challenge - GT Racing in Azerbaijan

David Addison Offers a Personal View

Maybe it was hearing the theme from Desert Island Discs as I stepped out of the lift, maybe it was the largest number of Ladas I’ve seen since the 1996 London Open Banger Championship, or maybe it was the amazing architecture as old mingled with modern in Baku city. Whatever it was, it was a surreal experience being in Azerbaijan.

City Challenge, the event formerly held in Bucharest, was only announced at the Spa 24 Hours in July and straight away the cynics proudly announced that it wouldn’t happen. No track, you see. No infrastructure. No culture of motor sport. Event CEO Hartmut Beyer didn’t listen. He built a track, imported the infrastructure and created the culture.

The event centred on GT cars (not called GT1 or GT3, just plain GT to help the local audience) and they had two 30-minute single-driver races and a two-driver race with a pit stop. There was drifting, which was a massive hit with the fans, and Classic GP, which was a series of demonstration runs for F1 cars and other EuroBoss-style single-seaters.

Away from the circuit there were stunt shows (including some bearded looper on a motorbike who rode on a high wire up to a hotel and back again – not sure why), concerts, music zones and entertainment for children, which I confess I avoided but it’s safe to say it was a person in an animal costume. It always is, isn’t it?

The circuit, just two kilometres long, didn’t provide the chance to grab sixth gear and first and second were used for the corners; but the drivers acknowledged its challenging nature, especially keeping the cars away from the 1500 concrete blocks that lined the circuit. Alvaro Parente wiped out his Hexis McLaren against the concrete in qualifying, which rather proved that if one of the stars can make a mistake, then the amateurs could be excused. Of the visiting teams, four came from the Carrera Cup Deutschland, although no-one in the grandstands cared. All they bothered about, wide-eyed, was the opportunity to see a Porsche. Although Azerbaijan is a modern, wealthy, burgeoning country, I didn’t see a single sports car while I was there. This is a whole new market just waiting to explode.

The people were warm and welcoming and there were no security dramas, much to the credit of the government, keen to expand the country for tourism purposes. People are dubbing it the next Dubai, and it’s easy to see why: OK, so it is oil rich, but that won’t last forever and this is a way of ensuring that wealth is attracted to and stays in Baku after the oil is gone.

The major hotel chains are there, ready, the high street designer labels have their shops just as they do in any major city (although, Lord be praised, I never saw a single Starbucks). The man in the stand paid around 10 New Manats for his seat: under nine quid, which wasn’t bad value at all for a day out.

The money coming from ticket returns was largely irrelevant to the government, though. It is, as lots of these nations understand, all about tourism. Baku spent the weekend on the map, being talked about, showing off its architecture. It’s six hours away from London and it’s open for business.

There were familiar faces in the pit lane, both team managers and drivers alike, coming from the FIA GT1 World Championship or Blancpain Endurance Series, while the event inevitably attracted a few lesser German teams from national racing. There was the VIP car, effectively, of Jacques Villeneuve and Jos Verstappen, neither of whom starred but neither disgraced themselves either, in the way that Villenueve had done in his feeble Spa 24 Hours outing a few years ago, crashing at the Bus Stop and walking away from a repairable car.

At the other end of the scale, Canadian Mark Thomas and Scotsman Willy Toye, both of whom live and work in Azerbaijan in the oil industry, found seats to race on home soil. Sadly, they came together in the first accident of the weekend when Toye, whose only race experience of note was in a raggy Triumph TR7 V8 at Knockhill, sauntered out of the pit lane into the path of Thomas’ Porsche 911 GT3R and splattered it against the concrete. Toye was given a reprimand, the Lamborghini he was driving for GRT was repaired, and then he bounced it off the wall in qualifying. That was the straw that did for the camel’s back. It had used up its spare parts quota and was abandoned. Also in strife were the two Rhino’s Leipert Lamborghinis, one lost to an accident and one to a knackered engine. Oh, and when Jürg Aeberhard punched his Corvette into the wall exiting the final chicane that was dead as well.

And the racing? Yeah, pretty good on the whole. Race one was all about surviving and it offered plenty of possibilities to entertain Martin Haven and me in the TV commentary booth, whereas race two tested us a little more with an early red flag caused by Mitch Mitländer in the wall and oil coating the circuit. The second red flag, for Aeberhard’s Corvette, brought things to a close with 17 minutes to go but it did allow Mathias Lauda to score his first ever race win.

The final was a belter of a race, although while it was a great to see BMWs battle, their internecine scrap did allow Hexis an easier passage to win. Mind you, I still don’t think anyone would have beaten Fred Makowiecki and Stef Dussledorp. In fact, for all that I drone about what a GT star Maxime Martin is, Mako is on a par if not better. Discuss…

Other highlights on the track? It was great to see Yelmer Buurman and Niki Mayr-Melnhof going so well after their accidents at Donington Park; Bernd Schneider was the hero we knew he was and Sean Edwards deserves credit for the fastest lap of the race, although sadly he was penalised 30 seconds for spinning Maximiliam Buhk near the end of the race.  Nick Tandy, as always, shone in the second Mühlner Motorsport Porsche and Carrera Cup front-runner Ben Barker impressed the Konrad team in his first drive for the squad.

The teams loved it, but that is always the case with a new and novel event, especially since the bulk of the costs were covered by the event’s organisers, but aside from the fact that it was a two-kilometre street circuit, there were no grumbles at all. Well, only from team managers about their drivers driving into concrete, but not about the event itself.

Negatives? Apart from a few teething troubles for us television luvvies, there little to whinge about at all. Maybe a tweak to a corner or two to promote overtaking could be considered, if the topography allows, and maybe we could do with another four cars or so, if only to ensure that the numbers don’t drop off for the final. Mind you, perhaps one reason why the third race was a proper one was not just that people were more track-savvy, but that the smaller number of cars on track helped to reduce incidents.

Is there to be a return to Baku? We are told that the government loved it and the event will be back next year, one of three (allegedly) in 2013. The other venues mentioned are… no, I’d better not spill the beans. Watch this space though.

In truth, the Baku City Challenge could have been run anywhere. Yes, Azerbaijan handed over money and some roads, but the infrastructure was brought from Germany and Austria (people, practices, tyre walls, pit buildings, for example) so it could have just as easily been plonked in Berlin, Bridlington or Baghdad and it would still have worked.

That is the beauty of the concept: here is the travelling turnkey tourist-inducing motor sport event. You give us the roads, we do the rest. For as long as there are countries wishing to spend, there seems to be a rosy future for City Challenge.

My wife, a keen observer both of motor racing and my regular absences from the homestead, asked a very valid question last week: “What on earth do you want to go to Azerbaijan for?” The answer came through clearly at the weekend, though: a ripper hour of GT racing that never failed to excite, and if the fans – many of whom had never seen a motor race before – enjoyed it half as much as we did, then they’ll be hooked.

David Addison