ROC announces event – Prost, Vettel, Schuey

Alain Prost

Alain Prost, one of motor racing’s all-time greats, has joined the line-up for the 2010 Race of Champions, to be held at Düsseldorf’s ESPRIT arena on November 27-28.

The annual end-of-season competition brings together the world’s greatest drivers from motor sport’s most prestigious disciplines and sets them free to battle head-to-head in identical machinery.

Now Prost will make his debut at this year’s Race of Champions, joining a driver line-up that already includes seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher – the only man in history to have won more grands prix than the Frenchman – and 2010 F1 title contender Sebastian Vettel.

“I’m very happy to be able to participate in The Race of Champions at last," said Prost. “In the past the date has always clashed with other commitments like the Andros Trophy ice racing championship, but this year it finally works.

“It will be an absolute pleasure to race with great drivers from different disciplines and different generations. I’m really looking forward to the experience."

Nicknamed ‘The Professor’, Prost took his four world championships during the Eighties and early Nineties – one of F1’s golden eras – alongside Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna, with whom he is most closely associated.

The Frenchman has recently returned to competitive action at the Andros Trophy ice racing championship in his native country. His two titles in the series show the 55-year-old has lost little of the pace that brought him so much glory.

The Race of Champions has been staged every year since 1988, founded by IMP President Fredrik Johnsson and Michèle Mouton, the world’s most successful female rally driver. This year’s event will again take place on a specially constructed tarmac circuit with two parallel lanes winding their way round Düsseldorf’s ESPRIT arena.

Johnsson said: “We’re thrilled that Alain will make his debut at The Race of Champions in November. He is one of the all-time legends of motor racing so this first appearance at the event is eagerly anticipated and long overdue."

More star drivers will be announced as the countdown to the 2010 Race of Champions continues in the run-up to the big weekend in Düsseldorf on November 27-28.