Race of Champions to Beijing

The 2009 Race of Champions will leave Wembley Stadium and be held in Beijing's Bird Nest stadium, organisers announced today.

The event, which was held in Wembley Stadium in London in recent years, will be the first international sporting event to be held in the Bird's Nest stadium since the Olympic Games last summer.

The event will also be held for the first time in the middle of the week, rather than on a weekend, and just two days after the F1 season comes to a close at Abu Dhabi.

The 2009 event will run over two days, the first day on Tuesday, 3 November, staging the Nations Cup. The Race of Champions will be held on the following day.

Fredrik Johnsson, president of event organisers IMP, said: "The Bird's Nest venue is awesome, and having spent the last five years at two of Europe's biggest stadiums, we were thrilled about the opportunity to take the Race of Champions to Asia for the first time, to another of the world's most iconic sporting arenas."