Malaysia GP has to give away tickets to draw crowd

The response for the discounted grandstand tickets for the Formula One Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix in April has been overwhelming – with all 500 on offer at the website yesterday snapped up within five hours. Sepang International Circuit (SIC), the organizers of the Malaysian GP, offered grandstand tickets at RM99 ($28 i.e. essentially for free) on their website.

SIC head of ticketing Noraini Nekmat said that within the first two hours, they sold more than 400 tickets.

“After five hours, all 500 tickets were snapped up," she said.

SIC are targeting 120,000 spectators for the Malaysian GP from April 6-8.

Among the steps taken by SIC to reach the target is to offer discounted prices for Citrine grandstand tickets. SIC intend to offer 2,000 tickets at discounted prices to promote the event. The normal price for the tickets is RM500.

Yesterday, SIC offered the first block of 500 tickets at RM99 through their website www.malaysiangp.com.my

The second batch of 1,000 tickets will be sold at RM199 and the last batch of 1,500 tickets at RM299.

The Citrine seats face the south track with a clear view of the slower and twisty Turn 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 where most of the overtaking maneuvers take place.

Besides banking on discounted tickets, SIC are hoping to attract the visitors expected during the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 programs to break last year’s record of 107,634.

Sepang will once again host the second round of the world championship after the opening race in Melbourne on March 18. However, this year’s race will be in April instead of the usual slot in March.