In recent years, the Minardi F1x2 Team has brought the sights and sounds of Formula One to the residents of some the world's most famous cities, including London, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Johannesburg and Budapest.

Next Thursday, September 21, the Ledbury-based organisation breaks new, and exciting ground, when one of its eight-strong fleet of two-seater Formula One cars runs on a specially constructed street course in the centre of Sofia, Bulgaria. Significantly, this will mark the first time a modern, Formula One-based car has taken part in an event on the Balkan Peninsula.

After completing the opening day of the programme, which is being sponsored by Mtel, Bulgaria's leading provider of mobile telephone services, the F1x2 Team will move to the nearby Bojurishte airfield for the following three days, where it will headline the inaugural Bulgarian Festival of Speed. The experienced Minardi two-seater crew has arranged for a pair of chassis to be transported to Bulgaria, one to be used for display purposes, and the other to be driven by F1x2 regular, Zsolt Baumgartner. The team and its hard-working driver will provide more than 60 passenger rides during the course of the event.

"We're very excited at the prospect of appearing in Bulgaria, and giving a brand-new audience the opportunity to see and hear a modern F1 car in action," says team owner, Paul Stoddart. "Over the past six years, the Minardi F1x2 cars have visited 12 countries and provided well over 2,000 passengers with a never-to-be-forgotten experience, so there was not the slightest hesitation when we were approached about staging a programme in Bulgaria. There is clearly a growing interest in motorsport in the Balkans, and this sort of activity fits in perfectly with the Minardi F1x2 Team's ethos of making Formula One more accessible to the fans. It is a great honour to be invited to Bulgaria, and we are definitely looking forward to the event."