The recent visit of the FIA World Touring Car Championship to Istanbul was chosen as an ideal moment to re-launch the Turkish Alfa Romeo Owners' Club. With Alfa Romeo taking part in the 2007 series with three Alfa 156 racers driven by Augusto Farfus, Gianni Morbidelli and Salvatore Tavano and run by N.technology, interest in the Milanese brand was high in Turkey and a rare moment when their focus was firmly on this European nation.

The re-launch of the Turkish Alfa Romeo Owners' Club (AROC), which was being co-ordinated by the official importer, Alfa Romeo Turkey, was scheduled for the Saturday and Sunday of 24th-25th September, with the club members' and officials being able to mingle up close with the N.technology team as they took part in the two practice sessions and final qualifying on the Saturday, and then on the Sunday as they contested the two FIA World Touring Car Championship races. A lot of preparation went into the re-launch and Alfa Romeo enthusiasts' from Istanbul and around the country threw themselves behind the event. The participation of Alfisti Turkey members (another Alfa fan club in Turkey) was excellent and first thing in the morning 30 cars departed from the European side of the city to join up with another 75 cars which had assembled on the Anatolian side. Once they had gathered together 105 cars headed for Istanbul Park, the impressive new facility and race track built especially for the Turkish Grand Prix.

The circuit is located on the Asian side of Istanbul , 6 km from the junction of Kurtkoy on the north side of TEM Motorway, linking Istanbul to Ankara while the impressive site is also situated close to the newly constructed Sabiha Gokcen Istanbul Airport. In addition to easy access form TEM and Airport, the new track is located within the green belt surrounded by forest and cultivated green fields. The area is clean of any pollution and pleasantly attractive for out door activities. The total area covered by the Istanbul Park Circuit covered is 2,215,000 m2. The track, which was created by circuit designer Hermann Tilke, runs anti-clockwise, is 5,333 m long and is composed of 14 curves, of which 6 are right turns and 8 left turns. The sharpest turn has a radius of 15m. The start-finish straight is 655.5m in length. The track runs over 4 level sections with rising and descending grades.
 

The main grandstand has an area of 12,700 m2 and a seating capacity of 26,250 spectators. In addition, the temporary grandstands and general admission areas provide a total capacity of over 130,000 spectators with the main grand stand. The paddock buildings are two level structures. The ground floor sections are for the teams and the upper floors serve as hospitality areas with additional viewing capacity of 5,000 seats. There are two VIP towers at the two ends of paddock buildings, each consisting of 7 floors to provide a floor space of 7,392 m2.

Once the convoy arrived at the impressive Istanbul Park Circuit, which only made its Grand Prix calendar debut last year, the numbers were swelled by more cars which had made their own way directly to the track, and by lunchtime over 200 Alfa Romeos were represented in the pristine paddock area. Particularly well represented were the Alfa 145, 146, 147, 156, 166, Spider and GTV models, with many highly modified examples mingling into the proceedings, clearly emphasising the strong feelings the brand evokes in Turkey.

The Istanbul Park Paddock area was reserved exclusively for the Alfa Romeo Owners' Club and a series of weekend activities to re-launch the club were also arranged. These included a test drive with the Alfa Romeo touring car team on the Saturday before a meeting in the VIP Lounge in Istanbul Park on the Sunday saw the AROC officially re-launched. The members also had an autograph session with the three factory Alfa Romeo drivers' - Farfus, Morbidelli and Tavano - as well taking as a grid walkabout and then watching the races. Alfa Romeo's involvement also extended to supplying the new Alfa 159 and Brera to be used on track during the weekend's races as the safety and lead cars. The whole weekend was judged a great success and the high profile re-launch attracted much attention. For more information on the Turkish Alfa Romeo Owners' Club visit their new website www.aroc-tr.com