The COVID-19 outbreak has caused further delay in the WorldSBK calendar. Today, it was announced that the Dutch round of WorldSBK, due to be held at Assen on the weekend of April 19th, has been postponed, and pushed back to August.
The postponement of the Assen round became inevitable on Monday night, after the Dutch government extended its ban on public events until June 1st, and tightened restrictions on travel and gatherings.
As we reported last night, based on reports by Italian website GPOne.com, engine and aerodynamics development is to be frozen.
But it appears that the story was wrong in at least one respect: engine homologation will not be taken from this week, but be backdated to Qatar.
Engine and aerodynamics development in the MotoGP class is set to be frozen this week.
Under normal circumstances, engine and aerodynamics development for factories without concessions is only frozen on the Thursday before the first race, but the COVID-19 outbreak means that we are a very long way from anything resembling normal circumstances.
The Circuit Of The Americas has laid off a large part of its staff and is suspending activities indefinitely. In an open-ended and ambiguous statement issued on Sunday night, the circuit stated that with large-scale public events canceled, there was little for the circuit to do.
With both the MotoGP race scheduled for April 5th, and the Indycar round scheduled for April 26th postponed until November, there was little for the circuit to do.
The outbreak of novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, has wreaked havoc on many things: public health, international transport, the global economy, and much more.
But as we are website about motorcycles and motorcycle road racing, we are primarily concerned on the effect it has had on the MotoGP and WorldSBK seasons.
As of Friday, March 13th 2020, Dorna and the FIM had postponed the Buriram, Austin, and Argentina rounds of MotoGP, and the Jerez round of WorldSBK, and were forced to cancel the MotoGP class at the season opener at Qatar.
Things have changed so fast over the past two weeks that it is almost impossible to keep up. As Twitter racing wit SofaRacer put it, “A month ago, the state of Marc Márquez’ shoulder was the big talking point of the season. Halcyon days.”
Since then, a small, contained outbreak of a new flu-like disease has gone from a curiosity in a remote location far from any traditional racetracks to a global pandemic, sweeping through the racing heartlands of Italy and Spain.
In part one of our feature with former WorldSSP300 world champion Ana Carrasco, based on interviews with Carrasco by Israeli journalist and TV commentator Tammy Gorali, Carrasco spoke at some length about how becoming the first female rider to win an individual motorcycle road racing world championship had changed her life, and the effect it had on the wider world, both inside and outside of motorcycle racing.
She discussed at great length with Tammy Gorali about what it means to be a woman racer, and a woman winning a championship.
In the second part of the feature, Ana Carrasco talks about her career as a rider, what her plans are, and what she would like to do in the future.
She discusses her relationship with the team, and the bond she has developed with reigning five-time WorldSBK champion Jonathan Rea.
The novel coronavirus outbreak is touching all forms of motorcycle racing. After MotoGP had to change its calendar twice in the past two days, the WorldSBK series has also had to change its plans. With the Spanish round at Jerez scheduled for the end of the month, that became untenable.
So the Jerez round of WorldSBK has been pushed back to the end of the year, and is due to be held on the weekend of October 25th.
The MotoGP calendar has been changed again due to the ongoing outbreak of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. This time, it is the Argentina round of the series, due to be held in Termas de Rio Hondo on April 19th, which has been postponed.
The race has now been set for November 22nd, the date Valencia was moved to in yesterday’s updated calendar, with Valencia now slated for November 29th.
On July 4th, 1916, Augusta and Adeline Van Buren mounted their Indian Model F motorcycles, and departed from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY, to start a journey that would take them 5,500 miles across America to Los Angeles, CA, over dirt roads, rough trails, and more.
Their objective was to prove that women could handle riding a motorcycle over long distances, and as a consequence, were fit to serve their country as motorcycle dispatch riders in the US military.
Two months later, after becoming the first people to reach the top of Pike’s Peak by motorized vehicle, they rolled into Los Angeles to complete their journey, following it up with a quick sojourn to Tijuana, Mexico, having proved their point.
The sisters’ quest went unheeded: although women would serve as dispatch riders in the WRENS, the British Navy, the US military would not employ women motorcyclists until the Second World War.
Women riders have always faced greater hurdles to riding and competing in motorcycle racing than their male counterparts. Beryl Swain became the first woman to race the Isle of Man TT in 1962, which prompted the FIM to ban women from competing, deeming motorcycle racing an unsuitable occupation for a woman.
That ban was later reversed, and riders like Taru Rinne, Tomoko Igata, and Katja Poensgen competed in Grand Prix racing, though their paths were never smooth.
It has been a decade, but it is here at last. The last time a rider from the United States of America took pole position in a Grand Prix was in 2010, at Indianapolis, where Ben Spies set the fastest time in qualifying. The last time an American rider was fastest in the intermediate class was Kenny Noyes at Le Mans in 2010. 2010 was a good year for Americans in racing.
Are we likely to see a revival of Americans in Grand Prix racing? Unlikely, given that there is only one rider from the US current in the entire series. But that doesn’t preclude seeing a lot of success for the US this year.
Joe Roberts has found something this year. The American Racing team (owned, ironically, by someone who is not American) have taken a big step forward with the Kalex, and the bike suits Joe Roberts’ riding style much better than the KTM did.
There is nothing like the sight of racing motorcycles entering a track for timed laps to bring a circuit alive.
If yesterday, the atmosphere was best described as eerie, the baritone roar of a pack of Moto3 bikes was enough to snap the MotoGP paddock out of its malaise.
We went from wandering around looking lost to watching the timing screens, and jumping out of the way of bikes as they entered the pits.
Walking up and down pit lane, and with a chance to focus on Moto2 and Moto3 exclusively, a few things catch your attention.