The 2022 MotoGP calendar will feature a total of 21 races, starting in Qatar on March 6th and finishing exactly 8 months later in Valencia.
The 2022 calendar sees further expansion of the number of races, as Dorna add new circuits and new countries to the schedule.
It is curious that we don’t see more customs based on the Suzuki SV650 motorcycle.
There are no shortages of the middleweight-twin in the used market, the bike has good bones with what is becoming an iconic motor, and the platform is well-suited to a variety of purposes.
Take for instance here the Stoker STR SV650, which we spotted on Bike EXIF, as it is an attractive flat-tracking custom from Finish builder Antti Eloheimo.
The Kymiring will have to wait. Today, the FIM announced that due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the complications posed by travel, the Finnish Grand Prix at the Kymiring has been canceled for 2021.
But in compensation, the circuit in Finland is to get a five-year contract to host MotoGP for the years 2022 to 2026.
So far, the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the 2020 MotoGP season has been to delay everything. But today, we had the first cancelations.
The races at the Sachsenring in Germany, Assen in the Netherlands, and the Kymiring in Finland have all been canceled for 2020.
It was already apparent on Wednesday that the Finnish round of MotoGP would have to be postponed. Today, we have confirmation.
Lahti Events, the promoter of the Finnish MotoGP round, announced on its website that the race, due to be held on July 12th, has been postponed.
On Tuesday, the Dutch government announced it was extending the ban on public events until September 1st, putting an end to hopes of racing in June. And now yesterday, the Finnish government have ended any hope of MotoGP racing in July.
At a press conference on Wednesday evening, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced that all gatherings of over 500 people are to remain banned until July 31st.
That would make it impossible to hold the Finnish Grand Prix, due to be held on July 12th at the new Kymiring circuit, 130 km northeast of Helsinki.
I will let you in on a little Scandinavian secret. We don’t really include Finland in the crowd. No party invites, no secret handshakes, and certainly no reindeer jerky Christmas baskets.
Sure, it might seem like the Finns are part of the viking neighborhood, but the Finnish are a bit…different from rest of their Nordic neighbors.
Culturally, Finland has more influence from its Russian border, and the Finnish language sounds nothing like the East Nordic languages of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, which are almost interchangeable with each other.
This has left Finland as the odd ball in the region, and it spills over into their culture. For exhibit A, I bring you this two-wheeled example. Behold what may possibly the most powerful dirt bike ever created.
The FIM have issued a provisional calendar for the 2020 MotoGP season, which sees the series expand to 20 races, and lays the basis for expansion to 22 races.
The biggest changes are the addition of the Kymiring in Finland in July, and the moving of the Thailand round of MotoGP in Buriram from October to 22nd March.
Episode 114 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this is a special episode covering the first-ever Women in Motorsports conference, put on by both the FIA and FIM in Finland.
Our colleague Tammy Gorali was in attendance at the historic meeting, and held a roundtable discussion with several key women in the motorcycle racing community.
The insights shared by Vanessa Guerra, Shelina Moreda, Nita Korhonen, and Maria Herrera to be very interesting. We also have an short interview with FIM President Jorge Viegas.
The first official test at the Kymiring has wrapped up, the second day of testing taking place under much better conditions than the first day on Monday. The day started dry, though action didn’t start until 11am, the riders losing an hour of time as the test was cut short by the weather.
On a dry track, times were considerably quicker than on Monday, when the track was both wet and dirty. Where riders were circulating in the 2’10s on Monday, Bradley Smith managed to get down to 1:47.540 on the Aprilia.
This past weekend was an historic one for motor racing, as the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) and the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA) combined their forces to hold the first-ever motorsport conference for women.
The conference was held in Vierumäki, Finland, and aimed to bring conversation around women empowerment, leadership, women’s role in the industry, and the future task of involving girls in motorsports.
The two-day event saw nearly 40 speakers (mostly women) from 25 countries and 5 continents sharing their stories and experiences in motorsport.