The Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in Midrand is gearing up to host its biggest motor racing weekend in recent years, the South African round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.

It will be the first time this unique series, that pits nation against nation in virtually identical single seater Powered by Ferrari cars, has visited the home of South African motor sport.

Tickets are selling fast and some of the grandstands are already fully booked. Grandstand and general admission tickets can only be obtained from branches of Computicket around the country or at www.computicket.com.

A1GP Gauteng, South Africa is the fifth round of the 2008/09 season and will feature teams from at least 19 countries, including South Africa, in two races on Sunday 22 February ? a Sprint race at 11am and a Feature race at 3pm.

Kyalami, 24 km north of central Johannesburg, has hosted many of the world?s premier motor racing formulas, including Formula One, MotoGP and World Super Bikes. The newly-formed Gauteng Motor Sport Company, headed by former Formula One test driver Stephen Watson, are the promoters of the A1GP event and will also be bringing the sixth round of the FIM World Super Bike (SBK) championship to Kyalami on 15, 16 and 17 May.

The circuit measures 4.26km and is laid out in a clock-wise direction. There are 11 turns, which include three of the corners of the original grand prix circuit, built in 1961 and rated internationally as one of the great circuits in the world. These are the fast right-hander called Sunset (turn 4), the tight left-hander known as Clubhouse (turn 5) and the fast downhill Esses (turn 6).

The current circuit layout was built in 1991, with only one minor addition since, the building of a chicane at the penultimate corner (turn 10). It also features the intimidating downhill section known as The Mineshaft that links turns 7 and 8. The lap ends with a slow left-hander (turn 11) that leads on to the short pit straight and across the start/finish line before diving into the fast turns 1 and 2. Kyalami remains one of the most recognised names in world motor sport.

The fastest recorded race lap on the current circuit is 1min 34,776sec, set in 1998 in a Sports Racing World Cup event. Appropriately, it was in the legendary Ferrari 333 SP driven by Italian Mauro Baldi and should be bettered by the Powered by Ferrari A1GP cars.

The fastest single seater race lap on the current circuit was set at the GP Masters event in 2005 by Nigel Mansell in a Reynard with a time of 1:36.390.

The fastest lap time set by a South African national competitor is 1:41.752 by Cristiano Morgado in a Formula Volkswagen in July 2008.

Spectators are reminded that while normal parking facilities will be available at Kyalami on Friday, a 'park and ride' system will be in operation on Saturday and Sunday 21 and 22 February and will operate in conjunction with a road closure plan.

There will be no public parking within the precincts of Kyalami on the Saturday and Sunday. Instead, remote parking sites will be set up and dedicated shuttle buses will run between these sites and their respective gates on a continual basis, ensuring rapid movement of race fans from their car parks to the circuit and back again.

Saturday and Sunday ticket holders should ensure that they park in the remote parking that relates to their grandstand ticket or the general admission area. This system has been colour-coded for easier interpretation and each 'zone' will include its own parking area, grandstands and amenities, including food concession areas and toilets.

For further information and illustrated maps of the park and ride system and road closures, please visit www.a1gp.com or www.kyalamiracing.co.za.

Saturday's qualifying will be broadcast live on SABC3 from 1.30pm to 4pm and Sunday's sprint and feature races will be broadcast from 1pm to 5.30pm (the recorded sprint race will be screened from 1pm while the feature race will be live from 2pm).