Scoop: The Mayor of Arad has decided to turn his city into a motor sports center and to refurbish its abandoned landing strip as a racetrack. The objective: Attracting visitors and businesses. The Kawasaki motorcycle he owns may have something to do with his interest in the subject.

Dr. Motti Brill is far from your typical Israeli mayor. For example, he holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering and spent most of his life in the secret aura-cloaked laboratories of the Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona. What’s more, there’s a Kawasaki GPZ motorcycle standing in his private parking space.

Brill was elected Mayor of Arad last November, accepting responsibility for a city plagued by severe deficits and crying out for new business initiatives, located in the quiet and desolate stretches of the Negev but only an hour and a half away from Tel Aviv. Moreover, Arad’s landing strip went out of service two years ago and its long swath of fine quality asphalt has since been neglected.

Grand Prix in Arad

Brill discovered the world of motor sports at a relatively advanced age. Perhaps what did it was his city’s proximity to the Sedom–Arad Highway, one of the best roads in Israel, or maybe not. Still, it was only seven years ago that he applied for a motorcycle license ("I had the idea in my head for a long time, but it was only after my mother passed away that I gathered the courage to do something about it") and even though his Kawasaki has been gathering dust since the municipal elections, ideas continue to pop up.

"I want to turn Arad into a motor sports center, with a racetrack, car museum and attractions for the whole family," he revealed in an interview with Yedioth Achronoth: "Arad needs a source of attraction for domestic and foreign tourists and for businesses. I want motor sports to be our growth engine. I hope we’ll be able to have Formula 1 racing here. As Mayor, I can help entrepreneurs and make it happen," he explains.

We ought to take Brill’s vision seriously, considering where he comes from – a city considered one of Israel’s nearly impossible achievements to this day. After all, in the 1950s, a nuclear reactor in the Negev was no less science fiction than a Grand Prix racetrack in Arad in the early twenty-first century. And there you have it.

Waiting for a Racing Law

The abandoned landing strip is the heart of the matter. As early as three years ago, Yedioth Achronoth published details of a plan to turn it into a racetrack. As we already had a central straightaway – the 1.6 km. landing strip – all that was needed was a few curves to complete it. In reality, the conversion is more complex, although many British racetracks began as military landing fields no longer in use after the Second World War.

The previous initiative died primarily for the same reason that is holding up the development of motor sports throughout the country: The absence of a law to organize auto racing. "The entire idea is contingent on ratification of the Racing Law. We are not going to violate any laws, but we met with MK Eliezer (Cheetah) Cohen, who promised us that such a law would soon be proposed in the Knesset and ratified at its present session," says Brill. Ratification of the Law can lead also to other interesting initiatives, even before the racetrack is built. "Imagine a racing course that includes the Sedom–Arad Highway, the Rotem Plains Highway with its long straightway and then back through Haarava Junction and the Dead Sea Works. The entire course will consist of 100 km. of excellent road. Brill hopes that with advance coordination, he’ll be able to have the roads closed to traffic for the duration of the race.

In the meantime, the Arad Economic Corporation is preparing development proposals for entrepreneurs. Several weeks before the Law is ratified, at an investment of only a few hundred thousand NIS, Corporation officials hope to see a motorcycle and go-kart track developed at the landing strip complex. The auto racetrack will come several (dozens or hundreds) of million NIS later.

We have A temporary site for the Model Car Museum until permanent premises are constructed at the racetrack/landing strip complex. Motorola has already agreed to sponsor the initiative.

Progress is slow on ratification of the Racing Law. It was supposed to have been brought before the Knesset this month, but will apparently be submitted only in February. According to Deputy Education and Sports Minister Zvi Hendel (National Unity Party), who is leading efforts to propose the Law, the last obstacle remaining concerns insurance.

For now, the Drivers’ Association submitted three proposals last week to the Ministry of Transport and the Israel Police, describing a pilot auto rally program. These proposals, submitted by Association Chair Danny Levi and attorney Ron Dror, were conceived after Ministry of Transport Director­-General Salman Ben-Zion agreed to consider approving the first legalized race even before the Law is ratified. The three proposals call for races in the Golan Heights, the Eshkol Region and Arad, where one of Israel’s last official races took place in 1999. If it were up to Motti Brill, this would not be the last mention of his city in this context.

Tevet 5764 - January 2004