World Superbike season start pushed back to May
The start of the 2021 World Superbike Championship season has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the opening Dutch round has been pushed back to July.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
WSBK was one of the only international motorsport series last year to get its 2020 campaign underway as scheduled in February with the Phillip Island round before the first European lockdowns came into force.
When racing got back underway again, seven further rounds were scheduled in a truncated calendar.
Due to COVID-19, the 2021 season already had a later start date than normal, with the traditional season-opener in Australia currently subject to contract – though this appears unlikely to take place at all.
The campaign was due to begin on the weekend of 23-25 April at the iconic TT Assen circuit in the Netherlands.
But due to a ban on large scale events taking place in the Drenthe region where the circuit is situated until the start of June due to the virus, WSBK organisers have had to postpone the Assen round to July 23-25.
The Portuguese round at Estoril – where the campaign ended last year – will now serve as the new starting point on May 7-9.
Further revisions to the 2021 WSBK calendar are still likely, with the Indonesian round at the under-construction Mandalika Street Circuit set for November still to be homologated.
Due to travel restrictions, last year’s Finnish MotoGP round couldn’t go ahead as no FIM officials could travel to the circuit to homologate it.
Revised 2021 World Superbike calendar:
Date | Venue |
---|---|
May 7-9 | Estoril |
May 21-23 | Aragon |
June 11-13 | Misano |
July 2-4 | Donington Park |
July 23-25 | Assen |
September 3-5 | Magny-Cours |
September 17-19 | Barcelona |
September 24-26 | Jerez |
October 1-3 | Portimao |
October 15-17 | Villicum |
November 12-14 | Mandalika |
TBC | Phillip Island |
TBC | TBC |
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