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Om GotlandRing
Visionen
Då GotlandRing byggdes för tio år sedan hade det inte byggts en motorbana i Sverige på flera årtionden.
– Målsättningen var att bygga något unikt som inte skulle likna de sterila och rätt så tråkiga moderna F1-banorna som byggts under senaste decennier för enorma budgetar (upp till 300- 400 miljoner euro för bana plus byggnader och läktarområden), berättar initiativtagaren och banarkitekten Alec Arho Havrén, som kört och vunnit flera race på bland annat legendariska Nürburgring i Tyskland. Samtidigt var budgeten extremt liten jämfört med liknande banbyggen ute i Europa. En liknande tysk bana kostade 34 miljoner euro; GotlandRing kostade inte ens så mycket i svenska kronor.
– Samarbetet med Nordkalk och deras sponsorinsats, i form av mark och stenmaterial, var avgörande för att få till bygget med banan, säger Alec Arho Havrén som är initiativtagaren och banarkitekten bakom GotlandRing. Utan samarbetet skulle det annars ha kostat mångfaldigt mer. Till exempel fanns allt stenmaterial på plats och därmed slapp man dyra transportkostnader, säger Alec och framhåller den insats som kritiskt.
– Även de personliga relationerna med Nordkalks nyckelpersonal har varit ytterst givande för projektets kontinuitet. Numera pensionerade Nordkalks Torsten ”Totte” Viberg, hjälper oss fortfarande med sin specialkompetens, berättar Alec.
När GotlandRing efter några år fick större evenemang krävdes mer än själva banan. Då Honda och BMW under 2007 ville använda GotlandRing för världslanseringen av nya bilmodeller krävdes mer infrastruktur, konferenslokaler och garage så att hundratals internationella motorjournalister skulle kunna tas emot. Då kom man på en hållbar lösning genom att använda sig av återvinning
– Cykelförråden från P18 inköptes från Fortifikationsverket och kördes till GotlandRing där detta återvunna material på rekordfart användes som grund till en stor lokal med nya isolerade väggar och stora glaspartier ut mot banan.
Samtidigt asfalterades en ny infart – allt detta inom 14 veckor inför världslanseringen för Honda FCX Clarity, en revolutionerande vätgasdriven elbil. Den japanska biltillverkaren Honda stod för hela investeringen för bara ett event!
– Det har ofta gått förvånansvärt fort att få saker och ting gjorda på Gotland, säger Alec Arho Havrén som innan GotlandRing har varit engagerad i ett flertal internationella projekt.
About GotlandRing
- GotlandRing is frequently visited by interesting and active people. Guests include world champions in racing and rally (drivers from F1, WRC, DTM, WTCC, STCC, and many more series), Swedish national football team, Swedish national Alpine team members, NHL players, X Games champions, international top cyclists, other sports men & women, artists, actors, business leaders, entrepreneurs, politicians, NGO leaders – an exciting blend of walks of life
- Instructor pool includes experts who have coached F1 World Champion Mika Häkkinen Grand Prix driver and Le Mans winner Mika Salo, and other champions
Business Modus Operandi
- Social & Environmental Entrepreneurship – “Doing Well by Doing Good”
- The first race & test circuit with an environmental profile and ecological content production – Safety & Eco Driving provided for both corporate and institutional clients
- Honda Motors chose GotlandRing for its European new model launch, Honda FCX, to demonstrate its paradigm shifting environmentally friendly technology
- BMW Gmbh chose GotlandRing as its worldwide launch venue of its latest coupe and its revolutionary Efficient Dynamics technology
Goals within Traffic and Safety
- Through continuous driver training create a positive impact on the dire traffic statistics within the EU (more than 50 000 people die and 1.7 million get injured in traffic-related accidents every year within just the European Union, excluding the latest new 10 member states!)
- Through a unique edutainment concept, provide a highly proactive, flexible and intelligent driving philosophy for drivers of all skill-levels
- Create a base for R&D of both active and passive safety
- Produce value-added services on a global scale through eSafety related product development and sales
Environmental Goals
- Continuously providing crucial driver training, such as Eco Driving
- Provide a dynamic testing facility for environmentally friendly vehicles, i.e. mission-specific zero- and low-emission vehicles of the future
- Provide educational support and awareness for more environmentally friendly values and attitudes
- Create intelligence for mission-specific vehicles and traffic systems that will create leading norms within the automotive industry resulting in reduced emissions world-wide, and therefore, contribute towards an ecological balance
- Contribute towards a more environmentally friendly driving style for public roads through running an eco-driving programme for corporate and public target groups
- Implement self-imposed environmental and safety standards that are stricter than that of the environmental authorities’ demands for public roads in Sweden/EU
Technological Goals
- Focus on providing the automotive, logistics and transport industry with the latest technologies that will urge a paradigm shift within the automotive industry
- Creating a unique cluster of companies from which clients can absorb and adapt new technologies
- Creating significant partnerships and an outsourcing centre through a solid base of core competencies for the biggest industry in the world
Goals within Motorsport
- Create the most challenging and flexible race circuit in the world that will function as a popular venue for international racing
- Create a race circuit and complex with no rivalry in the Nordic region and simultaneously contributing with one of the finest and most intriguing race circuits in the world
- Create a dynamic environment/race venue for both domestic and international race series
- Enabling tool to lift Swedish motor sport (i.e. racing and rally) to world level by 2012
- Provide a practice and race facility that enables youngsters combine academic studies with seeking international racing careers (in conjunction with the regional upper-secondary school and the university)
Project values
- Aim at quantifiable social objectives and simultaneously create revenue and added shareholder value
- Focus on promoting traffic safety and ecological values through edutainment special events and training/coaching
- Accelerate the development process of future lowand zero-emission vehicles
- Function as a catalyst and developer of a sustainable energy racing series and a yearly congress around the subject Diversely contribute towards sustainable development and minimising CO2 emissions
- Provide the automotive, transport and wireless industry with an enabling environment for R&D, product development and testing, piloting
- Actively seek alliances with corporations, institutions, interest groups, and authorities that share the same ethical values and environmental goals and enables the creation of a dynamic ecosystem plattform
- Further develop the co-operation with the ecomunicipality of Gotland and the Swedish state (GotlandRing already provides Eco & Safety Driving courses for Länsstyrelsen, a concrete example of conducive co-operation with the authorities)
- Continuously develop and implement the strategy for social entrepreneurship, creating vital added value for GotlandRing business partners, sponsors, and official suppliers
- Positively impact the communicational ability of individual vehicles, and therefore, optimising traffic flows (through GotlandRing’s wireless technology partners) infrastructure
Unique Environment and Top Travel Destination
- No.1 tourist attraction in Sweden – Gotland is ranked no.1 island in the world by Allt om Resor, leading travel magazine (journalists and photographers conducted the vote and ranking)
- Gotland voted top 15 travel destinations in the world (by expert travel magazine)
- Historic Hanseatic Capital of Visby is a pearl of the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List
- Long season – temperate and predictable climate
- Most sun hours in the Nordic region (more than even Mallorca in June), conventional event and testing activities can be conducted March-November (asphalt season), other activities such as Safety & Eco Driving and winter testing in December-February)
- Population base of 90 million in northern Europe within 1 hour flight
- Logistical excellence – 3h fast ferry or 30 min flight from Stockholm (Visby is one of the most frequently flown destinations from Stockholm)
- International airport with customised airport services (flexible and dynamic utilisation of buildings, security and ground services customised for the GotlandRing b2b clients, including parking vehicles next to the airplane)
- Charter flight management services
Development Opportunities
- Real estate development, after 2012 additional access of approximately 600 ha of land
- Major political support from the municipality for the development of a motorsport centre and theme park with related services
- Land available for innovative automotive industry (construction of test centres)
- Development opportunity to create the longest and most exciting race and test circuit in the world
- Built more economically and ecologically than any circuit today, thanks to the co-operation with Nordkalk, the main sponsor
- Concurrent development opportunities for hotels, villas, resort, green business incubator, and eventually a theme park
- Detailed prospect for the expansion development will be developed together with financing partners
GotlandRing Social and Environmental Entrepreneurship in Action
- Green business incubation activities
- Traffic safety & ecology content provided by unique edutainment courses in corporate events
- All electricity used is generated by windpower
- Construction is executed with minimum environmental impact thanks to the lime stone quarry location with abundant stone material available on-site
- All building structures so far are made of recycled material
- All safety zones, incl. conveyer belts and tyre barriers are recycled material
- No pesticides used on GotlandRing and its surroundings
- Dynamic testing facility for environmentally friendly vehicles, i.e. mission-specific zero-and lowemission vehicles
- Creating an interesting new biotope and habitat for diverse flora an fauna, in synergy with all circuit and resort development, by innovating ways to utilise an abandoned quarry
- Creating intelligence for mission-specific vehicles and traffic systems that will create leading norms and standards within the automotive industry resulting in reduced emissions world-wide, and therefore, contribute towards an ecological balance
- Contributing towards a more environmentally friendly and safe driving style for public roads through running a popular Safety & Eco Driving programme for corporate, institutional, and private target groups, and thus, reducing CO2 emissions
- Providing educational support and awareness campaigns for more environmentally friendly values and attitudes to facilitate sustainable development
- Implementing self-imposed environmental and safety standards that are stricter than that of the environmental authorities demands for public roads in Sweden/EU
- Environmental strategy planning in co-operation with the eco-municipality of Gotland
Key Success Factors
- GotlandRing’s exciting track design creates more pull than any other track in the Northern Europe, already considered one of the best circuit profiles in the world
- Enables secret testing activities with no outsiders disturbing
- Customer/client satisfaction – most satisfied b2b clients in the business, unique edutainment concept and by far the best safety record in the business
- Social & environmental entrepreneurship – this approach creates increasingly sales to all levels and all types of companies
- Multifunctional: flexible utilisation of multiple circuit profiles creates added value in the form of simultaneous event, test, and research execution
- Scarcity of track time in Europe and the modern safety standard will drive business to GotlandRing (can provide consecutive days of track hire for key clients thanks to its multipurpose design and flexibility)
- International airport with customised airport services (flexible and dynamic utilisation of buildings, security and ground services customised for each client), 25 min from the track
- Key personnel are leading driver development content providers with the best safety record in the business
- Unique environment on and around the track – professional film crews and media praise the special light and nature
- Excellent travel destination services and activities: one of the very best golf courses in Sweden (up to 12 golf courses available), culture, water sports, tennis, cave adventure, horseback riding, Viking adventures, and of course all possible motor sports on GotlandRing
- Gastronomic/culinary excellence and night life – many of the very best restaurants and night clubs in Sweden are in Visby and GotlandRing catering services are already internationally known thanks to global high profile automotive new model launches, among other b2b events
- Combination of functional and ecstatic surroundings – stylish conference facilities both on GotlandRing and around the island and an extremely service-minded GotlandRing management & crew
- GotlandRing co-operates closely with both the Eco Municipality of Gotland, the Swedish state, and interest groups (awareness campaigns and demonstrational eco driving events, consulting/organising safety and eco driving courses & events)
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