THE NEW Bushy Park racing track is practically finished.
“With a little bit [of work] you can go racing tomorrow, as far as the track is concerned,” Mark Hamilton, spokesman for the company behind the multimillion-dollar upgrade of the 40-year-old St Philip facility, said yesterday.
However, he conceded that “we have quite a bit of work to complete” before hosting the Top Gear Festival on May 17 and 18.
“The track itself is 99 per cent completed,” the operations director of Bushy Park Circuit Inc. (BPCI) told the MIDWEEK NATION. “The full tarmacking is basically done. All the curbs are in. All the main concrete barriers are in. The gravel pits are in.
“We are still installing the tyre barriers which then have to be covered with conveyor belting to meet the FIA (International Automobile Federation) specifications,” he said.
“We are pressing on with finishing the pits building. We have the foundation of the clubhouse to complete. That will be a temporary structure for Top Gear. We have some fencing to finish. We have to pave the yard and do the pits straightaway. We are also putting in bit of the infrastructure, including water, telephones, that type of stuff, on the infield . . . .
“We have planted trees on the spectator side. Obviously, what is good for building is not necessarily good for growing grass – that is, the lack of rain – but we still have a bit of time to go. Hopefully, we will get some coverage on the spectator side. We are not really rushing to do anything on the infield because that’s not critical at this point.”
Work to transform Bushy Park into a multipurpose motor sport facility started last August and Hamilton said the project was on track.
“We are sort of where we want to be,” he said. “Obviously, we have quite a bit of work to complete coming up to Top Gear but we’re comfortable that we will have it completed in time.”
The completed Bushy Park complex will be able to accommodate 13 500 spectators and Hamilton said “we’re very comfortable that we will have a full house” for the festival.
Tickets for two days of motor racing that will also showcase the Top Gear team and Formula 1 racing star Lewis Hamilton are going at $500, $200 and $75.
“Ticket sales have been going very well in the VIP and clubhouse areas and in fact have been sold out on Sunday (May 18) and nearly sold out on Saturday (May 17),” the BPCI spokesman said.
“We’re looking at the potential of opening a few more tickets on both days once we make sure that we can adequately accommodate fans. As is typical in Barbados, I think, and probably in the West Indies, the general admission ticket sales have been going steadily, but not at earth-shattering pace, but we anticipate that the norm of procedure will be that in the last three weeks that they will disappear because (the Top Gear Festival) is certainly the talk of the town.”
