South Africa lays claim to Champ Car round.

Sources in South Africa claim that the country is poised to ink a deal to bring the Champ Car World Series to the streets of Durban in the next couple of years.

Although new series owner Open Wheel Racing Series [OWRS] has only just managed to preserve the future of Champ Car racing - and admits that the next year or so will be something of a belt-tightening exercise - the Durban Mercury reports that an operation called 'Racing For South Africa' [R4SA] has plans to hold a Champ Car race on a 'Monaco-style' city centre circuit.

South African racing driver Stephen Watson, now managing director of R4SA, told the newspaper that he was in the process of concluding negotiations with OWRS for a five-year agreement to host the event, which he claims will be 'the centrepiece of a motorsport programme intended to encourage investment in the country and create employment and educational opportunities'.

"Hosting a street race in Durban means we have to create a temporary circuit like those in Surfers Paradise, Australia, and Long Beach, California," he said, "These events have been highly successful for their host cities, for 13 and 22 years respectively. It will be an immense undertaking. Temporary grandstands have to be erected, concrete barriers, safety fencing, PA systems, security, hospitality suites, press facilities, pit areas, all have to be put in place and then removed after the event."

Watson, a moderately successful F3 and sportscar racer, went on to compare the arrival of the Champ Car World Series to other major sporting events staged recently in South Africa.

"[The country] has hosted the rugby and cricket world cups and has an understanding of the significant economic benefits events of this calibre deliver," he explained, "Those events only come around once every four years, and South Africa may only have the opportunity to host them, at best, once every 20 years or so. The Champ Car World Series will deliver these benefits every year and will showcase to the world that we have the capability and first-world infrastructures to accommodate international events of this scale."

Several circuit layouts and locations have been studied in detail by R4SA, and the final design will be formally unveiled next month.