09.07.2004 This week the Minardi F1x2 team participated in Tuesday evening's "Formula One Comes to Regent Street" and in the process raised a staggering $275,000 for charity

The Minardi F1x2 team has participated in some exceptional events in the course of the last three years, but there is no doubt that last Tuesday night’s Formula One Comes to Regent Street was the most memorable yet.

Staged on a glorious summer evening before a massive, and enthusiastic, crowd in the heart of London’s West End, the programme featured cars from eight of the current Formula One World Championship teams.

Regular Wilux Minardi Cosworth driver, Zsolt Baumgartner, took the wheel of one of the team’s fleet of eight two-seater F1 cars for the unique event, his passenger being Kylie Flynn, fiancée of Cantor Fitzgerald International CEO, Lee Amaitis, who bid a staggering $275,000 at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix Ball charity auction to secure the ride.

For Minardi race driver, Zsolt Baumgartner, who drove an F1x2 car in front of a similarly rapturous crowd in his “home” city of Budapest earlier this year, it was an evening to remember. 

“I think these sorts of events, which bring F1 to the people in the big cities, are just great,” he said. “The temporary course here on Regent Street was very tight and bumpy, so there wasn’t much chance to show what a Formula One car could do, but even so, the crowd was amazing, and people have now had a chance to see and hear what F1 is like in the middle of London. 

" It was also great to have Kylie as a passenger, she was really enthusiastic and I think enjoyed being a passenger in front such a huge crowd. It was a lot of fun.”

It was left to Minardi Team Principal, Paul Stoddart, who had been present for much of the day in Regent Street, to sum up the occasion. “It has been an awesome evening, what an incredible sight to see Formula One cars running on the streets of London,” he said.

“Tonight, Londoners had the opportunity to experience F1 at its best, with eight out of the ten World Championship teams performing in front of a massive crowd, estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. In the case of Minardi, it was a particularly notable evening, as we ran one of our two-seater F1 cars with a very special passenger on board.

"Kylie Flynn has waited anxiously for this event since the charity auction at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix Ball took place back in May, when a staggering $275,000 was raised for charity by this ride. Kylie obviously thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and will undoubtedly remember this evening for the rest of her life.”