Balatonring was to be a long motor racing circuit, located in

Sávoly Sávoly () is a village in Somogy county, Hungary. About Sávoly Population: 576 Area: 1.19 km2 Fields: 25.65 km2 The road running across the bridge of the Marótvölgyi Channel goes to Sávoly. Water flows very slowly in the chann ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

near Central and South Europe's biggest lake Balaton. The site is located about away from

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, the capital city of

. Spain's Balatonring Zrt was to operate the racing circuit with 70% share owned by Worldwide Circuit Management S.L. (WCM) and Magyar Turizmus Zrt. (Hungarian Tourism Board) owning 30%. Spanish investment group Sedesa would have been the constructor at a cost of €80 million and seating for 110,000 to 140,000 would have been constructed. Construction work on the 200 million Euro project had started on 6 November 2008, and the facility was due to host its first

MotoGP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...

race on 20 September 2009. However, on 11 March 2009, motogpmatters.com reported that the Hungarian round would be canceled due to problems related to the

Financial crisis of 2007–2010 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

. The circuit would not be completed in time for the September 20th race. The first Hungarian GP was scheduled to take place in September 2010. On 18 March 2010 the

Hungarian motorcycle Grand Prix The Hungarian motorcycle Grand Prix was a motorcycling event that had been part of the Grand Prix motorcycle racing World Championship. History Only two editions were held. The first Hungarian Grand Prix was held in 1990 on the Hungaroring and w ...

was cancelled as the FIM said the construction work that needed to be done will not be done in time for the event. It was replaced by the Aragon motorcycle Grand Prix in

MotorLand Aragón MotorLand Aragón (alternative Spanish name: Circuito de Alcañiz) is a race track used for motorsports located in Alcañiz, Spain. The circuit was designed by German architect Hermann Tilke in conjunction with the British architectural busin ...

. As of November 2012, the plot has been on auction for a month. The project has accumulated a total debt of HUF 3.5 bn (USD 16,000,000) and the plot is being sold for HUF 1.5 bn (USD 6,800,000). Nothing can be seen from the track line as weeds have grown over it.

References

External links

Balatonring non-official homepageGerman Blog about Balatonring
{{coord, 46.572, 17.269, display=t, type:landmark Motorsport venues in Hungary Unbuilt sports venues Proposed buildings and structures in Hungary