The start of the 2021 WorldSBK season will have to wait for another two weeks.
The Dutch round of WorldSBK, scheduled to take place at the TT Circuit Assen from April 23-25th, has been pushed back to July 23-25th due to COVID-19 restrictions. The season will now start at Estoril, on the weekend of May 9th.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the MotoGP calendar. The second and third rounds of MotoGP, at Termas de Rio Hondo in Argentina on April 11th and at the Circuit Of The Americas on April 18th have been officially postponed.
In their place, Qatar will host back-to-back races at the Losail International Circuit on March 28th and April 4th, and reserve circuit Autódromo do Algarve at Portimao will host a race on April 18th.
Though officially only postoponed, the Argentina and Austin rounds are almost certain to be canceled, a move which had long been expected.
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.
The next wave of rolling race postponements due to the current COVID-19 pandemic has hit. Today, the FIM announced that the next three rounds of WorldSBK, at Imola, Aragon, and Misano, have been either moved or canceled.
The WorldSBK grid is now due to assemble again at the UK round of WorldSBK, at Donington Park, from July 3rd to 5th.
Another week, another motorcycle race postponed, with no date set for rescheduling. This week it is the turn of the Mugello and Barcelona rounds of MotoGP, scheduled to take place on May 31st and June 7th respectively.
Today, the FIM, IRTA, and Dorna announced that the Italian and Catalunya rounds of MotoGP have been postponed, and no new date has been set for them to take place.
The COVID-19 outbreak continues to wreak havoc on the 2020 MotoGP calendar. Today, Dorna announced that the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, due to be held on 15th-17th May, has been postponed until further notice.
As happened with Jerez, no new date for Le Mans has been announced. MotoGP, like all other international sports, faces a huge problem in putting together a calendar, in the face of uncertainty over how long restrictions on travel and events will continue.
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to be a wrecking ball to the MotoGP calendar, with now the Grand Prix of the Americas being postponed because of health concerns and travel restrictions.
The announcement coming jointly from Dorna, IRTA, and the FIM is not a surprise for those following the space, and just yesterday we speculated about today’s possible news.
With Italy overnight clamping down the entire country, and and cases of the virus continuing to grow in Europe and America, today’s announced postpone seemed all but certain.
After the news regarding the cancelation of the MotoGP races in Qatar, it was perhaps only a matter of time before Dorna realized that it has another series headed to the Gulf state, which would have to deal with the new Qatari travel restrictions.
Accordingly, it is not surprising that the FIM and Dorna have announced that the Qatar WorldSBK round, which was slated to take place in two weeks’ time (March 13th thru 15th), has been postponed until further notice.
The 2012 PokerStars Senior TT is making history books, despite the fact the race was postponed from Friday to Saturday, and ultimately cancelled late in the afternoon on its rescheduled race day. The first time the Senior TT has been called for track conditions, the only other time the blue ribbon race has failed to run has been during the TT’s racing suspension for WWI and WWII.
Leaving fans to wait along the Mountain Course for several hours, the race was finally scrapped after a contingency of TT riders viewed the full course via automobile. Finding damp patches along sections like the Mountain Mile, John McGuinness et al deemed the race too risky for the 200+ bhp superbikes, though they thought that the tamer inaugural Lightweight class (650cc twins) would be alright to make the run.
UPDATE: TT organizers have released the schedule for tomorrow, find it added after the jump.
Racing action at the Isle of Man TT was delayed and finally cancelled because of inclement weather today, and as such the second Monster Energy Supersport race, the second Sure Sidecar race, and the TT Zero race have been pushed back to Thursday.
At first the TT was merely postponed because of low-hanging clouds on the course that limited visibility; but as the morning wore on, rain began falling on the Mountain Course, and race officials sacked the days events.
TT Zero and the rest of the races are expected to take place tomorrow, but the Isle of Man has not released the new schedule yet. Check back to this article for an update on race times for Thursday when we get them.
If you tuned into SpeedTV today (or whatever your local channel may be), you may have noticed only a few laps of 125cc & 250cc racing, and noticeable absence of any MotoGP action. This is because a rare rainstorm at the Losail International Circuit this evening scrubbed the first MotoGP race of the season. Because of the rain-soaked tracks and heavy use of flood lights, the circuit became almost mirror like and was too treacherous for the riders to compete on safely. The season opener for MotoGP has been pushed back to Monday at 9pm Qatar time, with an additional warm-up session beforehand at 6.30pm.