Kazakhstan tycoon building motor-racing track near Almaty

Construction of Sokol motor-racing track with the area of 205 hectares is taking place in Ili Region of Almaty Oblast (76th kilometer of Almaty-Yekaterinburg M36 road). Kazakhstan tycoon Alidzhan Ibragimov has invested $40 million into the project managed by his sons Dostan, Davron and Furkat, Auto.Lafa.kz writes. The track will be opened this September. It will host one of the stages of Kazakhstan carting and dragstrip championship. Sokol will include lanes for dragstrip (900 meters), carting (1.5km) in several configurations, highway-ring lane (5.33km) in two configurations and two stands for 5,000 and 2,000 people. The track will also have a training center for defensive driving and a platform for amateur tournaments. The track will also boast a fine infrastructure that will be completed in the next five years: café, hotel, pilots training facilities, technical park, lake and playground for kids. Sokol will enable Kazakhstan to host international tournaments of the highest class. The plan is to create a network of sport clubs for children, open carting and other auto sports trainings, as well as a school for improvement of driving skills in Sokol. 58-y.o. Alidzhan Ibragimov is a major Kazakhstan entrepreneur. Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $2.8 billion. Ibragimov is a co-owner of ENRC along with Aleksander Mashkevich and Patokh Shodiyev.