Motor-Sport - Mdina Classic Grand Prix 2012 between 11 and 14 October

The Malta Independent Online: Motor-Sport - Mdina Classic Grand Prix 2012 between 11 and 14 October
The 2012 Mdina Grand Prix is to be held between 11 and 14 October.

This was announced last week by the organisers after the success achieved this year.

Throngs of people lined up the streets to watch the 60 participants including stunning classic cars and their international celebrity drivers, glamorous stars and global brand owners.

The Valletta Grand Prix Foundation announced that the two days of racing will now be extended to four days of activities given the quality of the Mdina venue and racetrack, culminating on Sunday October 14, 2012.

The 2012 Mdina Grand Prix and Classic Car Event organised by the Valletta Grand Prix Foundation will feature races and exhibitions of historic and classic cars and incorporates a racetrack stretching from Mdina through Mtarfa and into Rabat, over a distance of 2.2 kilometres. This race circuit gives the public many good spots in Mdina, Mtarfa and Rabat from which to follow the race. This street race is the only one of its kind in this part of the Mediterranean and attracted huge crowds of local and international visitors in 2011 to the racing heart of Malta. The 2011 Mdina Grand Prix, was a classic car event like no other with action, drama and full speed to thrill the large crowds.

The main event is a street race, with Malta increasingly seen as the Monaco of the Southern Mediterranean. Past entries have included sports cars, two-seater racers and other classic cars built between 1910 and 1975 as well as single-seater racing cars dating between 1930 and 1960. Several celebrities are expected to attend after the success of the 2011 event. Some of the 2011 celebrities were Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons’ grandson, Michael Quinn, along with fellow racers John Burton in a beautiful E-Type and Guy Broad in his world-beating “bubble” XK, the fastest XK in history. They were joined by Gemma Hunt from the BBC who hosted the race and performed the duties of master of ceremonies for the official prize-giving, actress Nathalie Pownall who breezed in for race weekend to add an extra touch of glamour and objectivity as a judge for the Concours D’Elegance. There was also swashbuckling global luxury brand owner of Bremont, Giles English, as well as Mark Dixon, from cult UK motoring magazine Octane, and Kari Hautala and Mikkonen Ilpo from Moottori, the oldest automobile magazine in Finland, indeed a heady mix.