With its World Heritage Sites and the world's largest Casino, Macau has been attracting more and more attention as an intriguing tourism destination. The ex-Portuguese settlement was returned to China in 1999 and became a Special Administrative Region of the Asian giant, but it still attracted as many as 380 thousands of Japanese tourists in 2009, which was 3.8% increase over the previous year.
But, in the third week of November every year, Macau is to be filled with enthusiastic air of motor sport. The Macau Grand Prix, which three Portuguese launched in 1954, is now a popular and famous fixture as one of the oldest race events in Asia.
The challenging temporary street course is set out in the city center of Macau and, therefore, the whole track is bordered only with rows of guard rails and virtually has no escape zones. The 6,117 meter long circuit consists of two totally different sections, the very high speed 'ocean side' and the slow and technical 'mountain side.' As the nature of the circuit causes many unexpected incidents during the races, you always have to keep your eyes on what's happening on the track.
The Macau Grand Prix, as a whole event, consists of various races including those of motorcycles. But one of the features of this event, along with the WTCC (FIA World Touring Car Championship) race introduced in 2005, is the Formula Three Inter Cup.
The race is often described as "the race of F3 champions", because the leading drivers from major F3 championship series around the world come together to decide who is the fastest. Of course, they are talented young guns and, in the past, many Macau GP winners were picked up by Formula One teams and earned worldwide fame as Grand Prix drivers. This explains why many motor sport insiders pay particular attention to this race.
[ADVAN TIRE INFORMATION]
Since 1983, the year Macau Grand Prix was fought by F3 cars for the first time, the ADVAN racing tires have continuously been the designated 'control tires' for the Grand Prix. Obviously, the tires used on this unique race track which set out on the public roads are required to have sufficient grip level and, at the same time, must be easy to use for the drivers, even if he or she doesn't have any previous experience with the ADVAN tires. In addition, the tires must be very reliable on the track surfaces which are infamous for their severeness against tires, compared with that of the permanent circuits.
The ADVAN racing tires have never failed to fulfill all these requirements and the participating drivers and teams, as well as the race organizers, always appreciate it very much. It is the fruits of Yokohama's technological capabilities and know-how earned from a wide range of motor sport activities all over the world and for many years. Besides the performance of tires, reliable on-site tire servicing capability and well-controlled delivery have also been vital for supporting the success of Macau Grand Prix.
Together with another featured category in the event, WTCC, which also relies on the ADVAN control tires, the race weekend in Macau will be dominated by the color of ADVAN again this year. As one of the most important contributors of Macau Grand Prix, ADVAN will strongly impress the visitors who come up for the race from all over the world, not to mention China, Japan, other Asian countries.
