July 7, 2007

Tor-tor Ice Rink, Toruń, Poland


Tor-tor Ice Rink, Toruń, Poland

Tor-Tor Ice Rink in Toruń, Poland

July 2, 2007

Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Usa


Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Usa

Daytona International Speedway is a superspeedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is a 2.5 mile (4 km) tri-oval race track facility with a seating capacity of 168,000 spectators. It hosts races of motor vehicles of various kinds, including go-karts, dirt bikes, motorcycles, sports cars, modified pickup trucks, and stock cars. The facility also includes a 3.56 mile (5.7 km) road course and a 180-acre infield, including the 29 acre Lake Lloyd.

NASCAR was founded by William France Sr. at Daytona Beach, Florida in 1947. The original premiere event in the series was held at the Daytona Beach Road Course. France began planning a new track for the premiere event in his fledgling series in 1953. On August 16, 1954 he signed a contract with city officials to create this new track that would become famous as the Daytona International Speedway. Ground was broken on November 25, 1957. The speedway opened on February 22, 1959 to a crowd of 41,000 people.

The NASCAR Championship’s most important race, the Daytona 500, is held annually at Daytona International Speedway. It is a 200-lap, 500 mile (805 km) stock car race. The list of Daytona 500 winners is very long dating back to the inaugural race in 1959, and includes “The King” Richard Petty, and Dale Earnhardt.

NASCAR, the premier stock car organization in the United States, holds some of its most important races on this track. These include competitions in its Craftsman Truck Series (where pickup trucks are raced), Busch Series (the stock car junior league), and Nextel Cup series. The Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona is also held at Daytona.

The racing season begins at Daytona starting with the testing sessions. The year’s racing begins with the 24 Hours of Daytona race in the Grand American Sports Car series. Then the racing begins for the Nextel Cup with the Budweiser Shootout and the Gatorade Duel. The Craftsman Truck Series begins with the GM Flex Fuel 250. The Busch Series begins with the Hershey’s Kissables 300, and then it is back to the Nextel Cup in “The Great American Race,” the Daytona 500. The Nextel Cup also features the Pepsi 400 in July at Daytona.

It also contains an attraction called Daytona USA, where the winning car is placed for a whole year.

[Source: Wikipedia]

June 18, 2007

“Kielce” race track, Miedziana Gora, Poland


“Kielce” race track in Miedziana Gora

June 8, 2007

Dover International Speedway, Dover, Usa


Dover International Speedway, Dover, Usa

Dover International Speedway (nickname: The Monster Mile) is a NASCAR race track located near Dover, Delaware. It is unusual in several respects. It is a concrete track; most NASCAR tracks are asphalt. It is co-located with a horse racing track, Dover Downs, and in fact is sometimes also referred to by this name. It is also exactly one mile long; technically this means that it is neither a superspeedway nor a short track. The speedway is also notoriously hard on cars, and its standard nickname is The Monster Mile. The horse track is part of an extensive entertainment complex including other forms of gambling; at one time both it and the speedway were owned by the publicly-traded Dover Downs Entertainment, but they have since been split into two separate enterprises, partly at the encouragement of NASCAR. At one time the Winston Cup races held here were 500 miles long until a NASCAR rules change limited 500 mile races to being held only at tracks over a mile in length; the current Nextel Cup races here are 400 miles long. Dover also hosted Indy Racing League races in 1998 and 1999 won by Scott Sharp and Greg Ray.

The same company owning Dover Downs also owns several other racetracks, including Nashville Superspeedway; it has been suggested that one of the two current Cup races held there could be shifted to Nashville but this seems unlikely as both current Cup races at Dover are easily sold out. The Dover ownership is one of only three publicly-held ownership groups of NASCAR tracks, the other two being International Speedway Corporation, controlled by NASCAR’s founding France family and owners of the Talladega and Daytona tracks, among others, and Speedway Motorsports, Inc., led by Bruton Smith and H. A. “Humpy” Wheeler, which owns Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, among others. Aside from these three ownership groups, NASCAR tracks are privately held by one or a few individuals.

[Source: Wikipedia]

Autódromo Nelson Piruet, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil


Autódromo Nelson Piruet, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Racing circuit Autódromo Nelson Piruet in Rio de Janeiro

Seats: 60,000

Inaguuration: 1977

May 9, 2007

Hamad Aquatic Centre, Ad-dauha, Qatar


Hamad Aquatic Centre, Ad-dauha, Qatar

The state-of-the-art structure houses an Olympic sized swimming pool and diving area, a 200-metre athletics track, a gymnastics hall, a full- sized football field with artificial turf and a five- a- side football pitch, 11 tennis courts, 13 table tennis courts, eight fencing strips, two squash courts and wood- floored judo and karate mats.

April 30, 2007

Ford Center, Oklahoma City, USA


Ford Center, Oklahoma City, USA

The Ford Center is a multipurpose indoor sports/concert arena located in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The arena opened on June 8, 2002; three years after construction began.

The 586,000 square-foot facility seats 19,675 on four seating levels and features 3,380 club seats, seven party suites and 49 private suites. Ford Center is owned by the city. The facility is the premier project of Oklahoma City’s visionary capital improvement program (MAPS) to finance new and upgraded sports, entertainment, cultural and convention facilities with a one-cent sales tax.

Architecturally, Ford Center shares likeness with its sister stadium Ford Field, an indoor stadium in downtown Detroit that was home to Super Bowl XL in February 2006. The venue’s name comes from a naming rights deal with the Ford Motor Company. It is located adjacent to I-40 Crosstown’s interchange with Robinson Avenue in downtown Oklahoma City, just across the street from the Cox Convention Center.

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April 17, 2007

Air Canada Center, Toronto, Canada


Air Canada Center, Toronto, Canada

The Air Canada Centre, often referred to simply as The ACC, is a multi-purpose arena located on Bay Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario. It is the home of the Toronto Raptors of the NBA, the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL, and the Toronto Rock of the NLL. It was also home to the Toronto Phantoms of the AFL during their brief existence.

The ACC is owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd., and is 665,000 square feet (62,000 m²) in size.

An early nickname for the venue was “The Hangar” due to the corporate sponsor of the arena, Air Canada. However this name was never quite adopted by the general public. The Air Canada Centre is most commonly referred to as simply “The ACC” and has been referenced as such on the official Air Canada Centre website.

Andy Frost is the public address announcer at the ACC during Maple Leafs home games.

[Source: Wikipedia]

April 16, 2007

The Royal And Ancient Golf Club Of St Andrews, Scotland


The Royal And Ancient Golf Club Of St Andrews, Scotland

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is one of the oldest golf clubs in the world. It is based in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, regarded as the worldwide “Home of Golf”. Formerly it was also one of the governing authorities of the game, but in 2004 this role was handed over to a newly formed group of companies collectively known as The R&A.

April 12, 2007

Formula 1 Circuit, Silverstone, Uk


Formula 1 Circuit, Silverstone, Uk

Formula 1 circuit, Silverstone, UK