Today in the Colonial Hilton Hotel in Nassau The Hon. Obadiah Wilchcombe, Minister of Toursim, fully endorsed the Speed Week Revival and announced unprecedented support for the Event.

President Jimmie Lowe opened the proceedings with a heartfelt speech of how he, as a young boy, had attended the original Speed Weeks and they had sparked his interest in car racing which lead to a desire in later years to bring these cars back to his home country, continuing with the fact that great strides had been made already with the Local Community to make Speed Week available to all.

Chairman & Event Director, David McLaughlin, followed on by saying that in his view the Arawak Cay Street Track, or as he calls it, ‘The Circuit of the Bahamas’, has the potential to rival that of any other in the World for its beautiful backdrop of the sea and the cruise ships. He reported that Entries were well on target from both Europe and the USA and that negotiations with Sponsors and Partners were way ahead of the 2011 figures at this date. Indeed the announcement of a number of Global Brands as Partners will be made next week. Furthermore, interest in the VIP Paddock Club has been huge with a completely revised format which will create a 'Business meets Party' atmosphere - and details of those tickets will be available at the end of August.

The Minister applauded the work ethic and enthusiasm of the Speed Week Team and then continued to develop his own vision, which entails the new Sports Tourism Team giving very positive and pro-active support to the event. He also related how much effort and resource the new Government are devoting to improving the Tourism Experience and that his aim was, simply, to restore the Bahamas to being the World’s Foremost Warm Weather Destination. Minister Wilchcombe continued to develop the theme that Speed Week should be recognized in the schools of the Bahamas and that, in particular, the Karting* element was of great interest to all. He praised the Team’s enthusiasm for embracing the local resident Bahamians and enabling them to, once again, become involved in this great event.

*In 1959 the first World Championship for Karts was held in Nassau as part of Speed Week.

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