A new track in Rio?

During my investigations into the idea of an Olympic Grand Prix last night, I stumbled upon an interesting development in Brazil, which past me by earlier in the year. It seems that since the future of Jacarepaguá is compromised by the construction of Olympic facilities there is a plan for the construction of a completely new racetrack , a few miles to the north in the suburb of Deodoro. Nothing is yet certain but the Federação de Automobilismo do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, under the leadership of Djalma de Faria Neves has a plan to build a multipurpose racing facility in what is now a park, wedged between two motorways. The whole thing seems fairly unrealistic given the fact that the entire place is ringed with houses, but in Brazil there is such passion for racing that this might be overcome, although the club says that it is worried about the environmental impact survey that is needed. The facility would include a flat oval for IndyCars and a karting centre. The design I found was by a local architect called Artur Katchborian and I must say did not look that interesting. To do all of this makes no sense to me when you have an existing facility that could be botched around and revamped into something good for half the price of a new facility. The plan is apparently to plough up the existing track to turn it into an Olympic training centre, which makes no sense to me as Brazil is much more famous for its racing drivers than it is for its athletes but, hey, it is there money… It is worth noting that Bernie Ecclestone is beginning to put the pressure on Interlagos to improve as its contract runs out in 2015 and he wants a better facility. That is going to be tough in Sao Paulo and so other options will be considered. Rio de Janeiro would love to get the race back, of course, but the question is down to money. Joe Saward