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- The Tri-State Area
The 2004 Race of Champions marked a turning point in the famous exhibition event's history with the debut of the iconic stadium special stage inside the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris.
Conceived by former rally driver Michele Mouton and Fredrik Johnsson, the Race of Champions had traditionally been held on gravel tracks in Gran Canaria. However, moving the event to an enclosed venue just north of Paris transformed it into a stadium spectacle that happened to be perfect for television and large live crowds.
ROC was the first event in the world to use a parallel-track circuit, which sees each car take two loops of the track on separate paths with a crossover thus completing a single "lap" each and both starting and finishing side-by-side. This made its debut at the second event at the Nurburgring in 1989, but the mixed-surface course greatly favoured rally experts and continued to do so through its time in the Canary Island.
For the move to Paris, engineers constructed an all-asphalt parallel track inside the arena, featuring two interwoven lanes, a cross-over bridge, and tight hairpins that allowed drivers to race head-to-head in identical machinery - and a variety of different cars at that, including the famous ROC Buggy.
The inaugural 2004 edition at Saint-Denis brought together an unprecedented assembly of world champions across diverse racing disciplines, pitting Formula One superstars against rally legends and touring car icons with over 60,000 spectators packed into the stadium to watch.
A World Champions challenge saw Ferrari's Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher defeat World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb 2:1 in the ROC Buggy, While young prodigy Heikki Kovalainen conquered all to take the individual Race of Champions title - awkwardly beating Michael Schumacher head-to-head in the racing group in Ferrari 360 Modenas before defeating Loeb in both the Ferrari and the Peugeot 307 WRC. France took the Nations Cup courtesy of Kovalainen's only defeat of the day when he DNFed the final race against Jean Alesi with the tie poised at 2-2.
The event and its innovative circuit showed that competitive, entertaining motorsport could be brought directly into urban arenas without sacrificing drama or safety, and its success set a new standard which has seen ROC visit other arena venues around the world - including Wembley and Olympic venues in London, Beijing, and Sydney.
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