Press snoop: Ola! Cancun Grand Prix?

The latest rumours surrounding the Cancun Grand prix surfaced Tuesday in Mexico City when it was announced on the Mexican sbt news that MR. ABED signed the contract with BERNIE ECCLESTONE to run a Formula One Grand Prix in Cancun in October 2006. The track will be built by German engineer and race circuit designer, HERMAN TILKE, and will be called the Stingray - La Mantarraya.

English F1 sites have some news on the subject also. The big announcement is due Monday. What is being reported so far is that the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico will host the race, at an $80 million race track on 300 acres near Cancun. The project has the support of Governor, JOAQUIN HENDRICKS, and RODOLFO ELIZONDO TORRES, Secretary of Tourism.

The last Formula One race in Mexico was the 1992 Mexican Grand Prix at Hermanos Rodriguez, which has been magnificently upgraded since then and has hosted successful and wildly supported Champ Car races for the past two years. Next March it will have a NASCAR Busch Series race.

There are more and more Mexican drivers competing in the United States, including six Mexican drivers in Champ Cars, two in Grand America Road Racing Series, several in the Trans-Am Series, and several in the NASCAR feeder series.

Tilke designed the new Formula One circuits in Bahrain, Sepang, and Shanghai among others. They are all large, state of the art, on flat landscapes for the most part, and seemingly lack character - cookie cutter tracks. Tilke Engineering was also involved with A-1 Ring, Nurburgring and the redevelopment of Hockenheim, as well as with other aging European tracks such as Barcelona, Monza and Silverstone. Tilke is said to be involved with a proposed new circuit near Istanbul in Turkey

Tilke collaborated with PETER WAHL on the Shanghai circuit, which made its debut earlier this month. At Sepang, Tilke worked with local developers. He has visited several locations in India, which also has shown interest in hosting a Grand Prix. Other locations seeking his consultation include Dubai, and Moscow

Tilke has raced himself, in the European Touring Car Championships and GT endurance races.

The plot thickens. On Thursday night's edition of Wind Tunnel with DAVE DESPAIN, a viewer said he'd attended a gathering of Toyota executives in Southern California last week when the possibility of a Formula One race coming back to the area in 2006. The two sites discussed were a street race in Las Vegas around the Mandalay Hotel, or Long Beach, which hosted the USGP-West from 1976 through 1982. The current Champ Car contract with the Grand Prix of Long Beach has one more year.

Stay tuned. These rumours and speculations are much more fun than who is going to be suing whom.

In the meantime, all of the focus on Cancun and Silverstone, who cares about the possibility of changing the rules next season for Formula One Qualifying? The decisions the teams have to make have been lost in the shuffle. At stake is whether the teams will go - or not - for two rounds of Qualifying, with one on Saturday and one on Sunday morning, prior to the race.

As The Wheel Turns.