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Ricoh Arena among the favourites to host the Race of Champions

The Ricoh Arena is one step closer in its exciting bid to host a global motor sport event.

Over 10,000 votes have already been cast throughout the world for fans to choose the venue which will host the 2014 Race Of Champions.

The world’s best racing and rally drivers from Formula 1, the World Rally Championships, Le Mans, MotoGP, NASCAR, IndyCar, Touring Cars and the X Games compete against each other in identical cars to decide the Race Of Champions winner.

The Ricoh Arena – the only UK venue among the nine-strong international shortlist – is currently in the top four venues with the most votes alongside Germany’s Commerzbank Arena, Sweden’s Friends Arena and the Bushy Park Circuit in Barbados.

The other five venues competing to host the event are the Maracana Stadium, Brazil; Stade de France, France; Doha, Qatar; Mercedes-Benz Arena, Germany; and the Circuit of The Americas, USA.

There are five days left to vote at www.raceofchampions.com/voteforvenue

Liz Cooper, marketing director at the Ricoh Arena, has urged people to vote for the Ricoh Arena to bring the Race Of Champions to the UK for the third time.

“Wembley has hosted the Race Of Champions twice and we would love to bring the event to the Midlands but we need your support,” she said.

“We have been really pleased with the response to our appeal for people to vote for the Ricoh Arena and we are delighted to be in the top four.

“There is still plenty of time to ensure the Ricoh Arena is top of the poll when voting closes so we are asking people to take two minutes to vote online at the Race Of Champions website.

“We are competing against high-profile stadia from across the world and it would be tremendous to add our name to the list of venues who have hosted this fantastic finale to the motor racing season.

“The stadium bowl would be transformed into a race track and after hosting a wide range of international sporting fixtures at the Ricoh Arena, it would be great to add motor racing.”

Seven lucky participants have already won Race Of Champions merchandise after casting their vote and Friday, August 1 will be the final chance to vote – both on the website and Facebook at https://apps.facebook.com/my-polls/rocvoteforvenue – to win Race Of Champions merchandise and the top prize of a TAG Heuer watch.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .