May 25 (GMM) Monticello Motor Club, located about a 90 minute drive from New York City, has been given a 20 per cent chance of hosting the United States grand prix starting in 2012 or 2013.

It emerged last week that the private club's president Ari Strauss told members the venue is in talks with F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone and had already been visited by circuit designer Hermann Tilke.

He wrote in a letter that he is now working on securing political backing, insisting it "is not a done deal".

But a new report by the local daily Times Herald-Record reveals that Strauss and club chairman William McMichael also met recently with Ecclestone in London.

A considerable stumbling-block is that the $35 million track - built in 2008 at the old Monticello airport and with comedian Jerry Seinfeld among its members - needs $150m in improvements and then millions every year for F1's sanctioning fee.

"We are cautiously optimistic," Straus said. "If you told me I had to bet on it, I would say there is a 20 per cent chance."

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