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Since its advent in 2004, the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix has established itself on the international racing calendar.
The race has seen its popularity rise, with 90,000 spectators attending the 2007 race, double the turnout for the inaugural race.
Having spent $150 million to build the circuit in 2003 and shelled out more to upgrade facilities and expand spectator capacity, Bahrain is more than making a return on its investment.
The hundreds of millions of dollars flowing to the kingdom is enough evidence of the economic impact of the race on Bahrain.
The 2007 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix has impacted on the Bahraini economy positively with an estimated $548 million, an increase of 40 per cent over the previous year, figures released by Mumtalakat Bahrain Holding Company (MBHC) claims.
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, Bahrain was expected to reap an income of $4.5 billion from international tourism last year, representing 7.6 per cent of its gross domestic product and generating 10 per cent of the kingdom's employment.
But Bahrain is soon going to have a competitor in the region itself, with Abu Dhabi set to stage a leg of the Grand Prix from next year onwards.
There are concerns that two races on the Formula One calendar in the same region may see a reduction in numbers at the Bahrain event.
But event supporters argue such is the Grand Prix's growing fan base that Abu Dhabi's inclusion will only serve to increase interest in the sport rather than dent Bahrain's popularity or profits.
The developer behind Abu Dhabi's new F1 racetrack has pledged to deliver "the world's most unique track" upon its completion in 2008.
The emirate hopes that the annual race will attract three million people by 2015, and so far, 33 per cent of the work on the Yas Island Circuit, which will host the Formula One Grand Prix from 2009, has been completed on schedule.
The project is part of the $40 billion Yas Island development, which will convert 2,500 hectares of the island into a leisure and entertainment tourism destination.
As Gulf nations compete to stage the Grand Prix, the sad fact remains that making a Formula One Grand Prix a financial success is proving a nightmare for promoters around the world.
Many of the races make a loss and promoters complain about the cost of hosting the event. The big problem seems to be the annual fees demanded by the Formula One group for the right to hold an event.
This, coupled with the rights than must be signed away, means that in a lot of cases the only source of revenue left to the promoter is the sale of tickets to the general public.
Then the issue is one of demand. If tickets cost too much money or access is difficult and facilities poor people will not pay to attend the races.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the world's largest sports stadium, boasts around 250,000 seats. This means that ticket prices can be kept low.
According to www.worldstadiums.com, the biggest seating capacity of a European race track is currently the Nurburging.
This has 150,000 seats. Hockenheim boasts 120,000. And yet both venues are struggling to make their Grands Prix financially viable.
Smaller circuits such as Silverstone with seating capacity for only 60,000 are in a worse position because while they generate enough to pay for the race fees they do not make enough money to be able to invest in new seating. This is the downside of the big speedways.
To derive maximum out of the investment, race tracks can be used almost every day to generate money from testing, launches and so on but during these the grandstands usually sit empty.
There may be potential for multi-use activities such as exhibition centres and conventions, but such facilities have not yet been developed on a widespread scale.
That is now beginning to happen in the US where some race tracks are building shopping malls to generate money at all times.
Competition or not Bahrain has already started moving in this direction.
An increasing number of Formula One teams are using Bahrain for off season testing and training in the winter months, taking advantage of the mild weather conditions and the easy transport links.
While not major crowd drawers, these test sessions also generate revenue for both the circuit itself through fees and for the economy in general as hundreds of drivers, team officials, technicians and support staff descend on Bahrain.
