LONDON, July 7 - As the soccer World Cup reaches its conclusion in Germany this weekend, A1 Grand Prix organisers are cranking up preparations for a second 'World Cup of Motorsport'.

The series, which made heavy losses when it started up last year with 25 national teams competing in identical cars over 11 races on six continents, this week published an expanded provisional calendar for 2006/2007.

Events in Germany and Portugal have been dropped due to disappointing crowds but New Zealand, with a well-supported team, has been added provisionally and China will have a race in Beijing as well as Shanghai.

The season starts in October and finishes in April at two tracks that once echoed to the howl of Formula One cars -- Zandvoort in the Netherlands and Brands Hatch in England.

Organisers say more than 100,000 tickets have already been sold for Zandvoort.

Other locations include Malaysia, Indonesia, Dubai, South Africa, Australia and the Czech Republic as well as another race to be confirmed in North or South America.

"We learnt a lot of lessons (last season), as you can imagine," A1's chief operating officer David Clare told Reuters.

"But we had some very strong races...and I think we proved the concept.

"It will be a lot slicker (next season) and a lot better operation," he added.

"The series started off with a lot of enthusiasm and drive and I think it evolved over the course of the season...into a more efficient business prospect."

HEAVY LOSSES

Dubai's Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum, the enthusiastic founder of the series, suggested last year that A1 could be a "two-billion-pound business" by year two if all worked to plan.

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