Zhuhai International Circuit (ZIC) (simplified Chinese: 珠海国际赛车场; traditional Chinese: ) is located at Jin Ding town in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, China. Motorsport started in Zhuhai when it hosted a race on its street circuit in 1993. Racing continued there until 1996 when the motor racing circuit was constructed and became China's first permanent motor race track with Formula One in mind. The circuit was designed by Australian company Kinhill Engineers Pty Ltd, the same group which created the Formula One circuit in Adelaide. The project manager for the project was Michael McDonough. The first international race held at the circuit was the BPR Global GT Series. The circuit soon became the hotbed of local motorsports with teams from Hong Kong and Macau setting up their bases inside the circuit garages. Track layout The original circuit contained 16 corners. But corners 7, 8 and 9 were eliminated and made into one corner, after a track change request from FIM. The circuit is long and has 14 turns. 9 of them are right turns and 5 are left turns and the circuit runs clockwise only. The shorter straight is long. The longest straight is the start/finish straight which is long and wide at its widest. Alexandre Imperatori, A1 Team Switzerland's rookie driver, suggested that there are many overtaking places in the circuit because of the combination of straights, hard braking areas for hairpins, tight corners, followed by and accelerating for long straights. The most successful driver on the circuit is the best one who can manage their brake wear. Zhuhai International Circuit is an FIA Grade II certified circuit. Lap records The fastest qualifying lap ever at the circuit was 1:23.203, set by Michael Ammermüller on a Lola A1GP on the fourth round on December 16, 2007 during the 2007-08 A1 Grand Prix season. However, this is not considered the lap record since lap records are taken from racing laps and not qualifying. The fastest unofficial lap ever at the circuit was set by a 2007 Panoz DP01 Champ Car on November 30, 2006. Driven by Roberto Moreno, it managed a lap of 1:23.612 during a demonstration run. The fastest unofficial GT1 lap time is set by Porsche 911 GT1 with Porsche AG team in 1996 4 Hours of Zhuhai. The time was 1:30.401. The fastest unofficial lap ever on a motorcycle was set at a Pan Delta 1000cc Superbike race,