Sprint event planned for Coventry, UK

ABOVE: Birmingham's F3000 Superprix of 1986-’90 were the last major street races in the UK.

Coventry city center in the UK could host competitive motorsport next year if plans for a sprint event on the ring road come to fruition.

Fledgling motorsport festival Coventry Motofest, which is run in conjunction with Coventy City Council, hopes to incorporate competitive time trials into its 2015 event next May based on a 2.1-mile route around the British city. The trials are subject to the British government completing the process of enabling local authorities to suspend the Road Traffic Act without an Act of Parliament.

The Deregulation Bill, in which the Road Traffic Act change features, has not yet reached the Royal Assent but is in the final stages of the legislative process and will be discussed again in Britain's House of Lords next Tuesday (Oct. 28).

"This was a big part of our vision when Motofest was first developed and we are so grateful to Coventry City Council for its forward-thinking approach in enabling us to make it a reality," said festival director James Noble. "With Coventry's rich motoring heritage and history [including Jaguar and Chrysler UK], it feels like the right fit to be racing in Coventry and we can't wait to make it happen."

RACING PART OF BOLD 2016 PLANS

The British Automobile Racing Club, one of British motorsport's most prominent organizing bodies, is assisting the organization of the event.

It is hoping a variety of cars from its range of club and national championships will take part in the event in some way, while a demo involving older cars from the British Touring Car Championship, as well as British Formula 3 and the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, could also take place.

It has been suggested that BTCC and British Formula 3 cars would participate in the trials, but this is not correct and there is no official championship involvement. However, festival bosses retain a bold ambition for the event to host racing in 2016.

While some competitive motorsport events, such as the Jim Clark Rally, take place on UK roads and the British Hillclimb Championship has similar rounds in Ireland and on the Isle of Man, the last street circuit race held in Britain was the 1990 Birmingham Superprix for Formula 3000 (pictured above), predecesssor of today's GP2 series.

BARC business development manager Ian Watson said MSA approval and implementing the safety features it recommended would be the biggest hurdles to sprints or demos in 2015.

"We're trying to attract as many different cars and series as we can," he told AUTOSPORT. "Some sort of sprint activity would give everyone a flavor.

"It isn't cheap, but they [festival organizers] seem committed to the task. It's something we're quite excited about and it's probably going to be the biggest [street race] event since the Superprix."