(F2-grade but good for F1 racing too, says Hermann Tilke of the proposed Pradera circuit. Photo by Bong Lacson)
LUBAO, Pampanga – “Gentlemen, start your engines.”
One of the most iconic commands in sports will not be too far-off in reverberating at the Pradera Verde complex with the planned establishment of the Philippines’ first “true” FIA Formula 2 racing circuit here.
Over the weekend, Hermann Tilke – German engineer, race driver, and circuit designer all-in-one – presented before auto and motorcycle race enthusiasts and the media blueprints and schematic plans for the Pradera circuit prepared by his eponymous company.
Tilke Engineers & Architects is reputedly one of the Top 4 circuit designers in the world and the only one commissioned for Formula 1 tracks.
While it is F2-graded in design, Tilke said Pradera’s circuit will also be equally suitable to Formula 1 as well.
“This is totally different while patterned after international standards where grand prix and Formula 1 championships including motorcycle races could be efficiently hosted,” Tilke said, even as he declined to compare the Pradera circuit with other his company designed.
Promising though that the challenge to the race driver “will meet the highest international standards.”
Aside from the hairpin curves, and looping gradients, the circuit will also have a speed stretch which can even serve as runway for small airplanes, said Tilke.
To cover 75 hectares of the Pradera property, the circuit will also comprise karting tracks, drag strip and the concomitant spectator stands that can accommodate up to 100,000, a green zone of trees, and a club house where auto shows and related events can be held.
“I can’t give you the exact cost of the project, but it is a huge development,” Tilke told newsmen during a post-presentation interview. A consortium of local and foreign investors is reportedly funding the project that is heralded as “putting Pradera notches higher not only in the national but even in the international sporting scene.”
Lying in a 400-hectare sprawl, the Pradera Verde tourism estate is a world-class integrated resort with a 36-hole all weather championship golf course, a 60-hectrae wakeboard park which is reputedly the biggest in Southeast Asia, a natural swimming park, residential villas with fairway views, and is home to the annual Lubao International Hot-Air Balloon Festival, hailed as the biggest festival of its kind in Southeast Asia.
