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MotoGP Race in Indonesia Delayed, Won’t Be at Sentul

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It is no secret that Dorna and the manufacturers active in MotoGP are keen to stage a race in Indonesia. The sport enjoys unrivaled popularity in the Southeast Asian country, and as one of the biggest markets for scooters and small capacity motorcycles in the world, Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki are desperate to race there.

The burgeoning middle class in Indonesia also make it a key target market for European manufacturers such as Ducati, who have seen their sales explode in the region, albeit from a very small base.

Throughout 2015, Dorna officials met with senior figures in Indonesia, including the Minister for Youth and Sports, Imam Nahrawi, and the CEO of the Sentul Circuit Tinton Soeprapto, in an attempt to hammer out an agreement.

So far, Dorna have a letter of intent signed by the Minister, and a preliminary deal which would see the race staged in Indonesia for three years, starting in 2017.

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MotoGP

Private Funding Appears for the Circuit of Wales, Will Begin Hosting MotoGP in 2018

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The Circuit of Wales is edging ever closer to becoming a reality. BBC Wales is reporting that UK insurance giant Aviva will be backing the Circuit of Wales project, and providing funds to allow building work on the track near Ebbw Vale in South Wales to start.

Construction will take some time, however, and Silverstone will continue to host the British round of MotoGP for the 2016 and 2017 seasons, the race only moving to the Circuit of Wales from 2018 onwards.

The news that Aviva is to provide financial backing for the Circuit of Wales still leaves many questions unanswered. It is not clear from the reports by BBC Wales exactly how much money Aviva will be putting into the track.

The circuit needs £300 million in private investment, on top of roughly £30 million in public funding in the form of loans. Whether Aviva will be providing the full £300 million for the Circuit of Wales, or sufficient seed money for building work to start is unclear.

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News

Miller Motorsports Park Sale Vacated by Judge

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Miller Motorsports Park is set to change hands, after the Miller family’s LHM Group decided not to renew its lease with Toole County on the property.

This created a situation where bids were tendered for a new operator, which lead to Mitime Utah Investment, LLC — a subsidiary of Chinese company Geely Holding Group, which is also the owner of automotive company Volvo — winning the bidding process with a sum of $20 million, two months ago.

That sale though has been vacated by Third District Judge Robert Adkins, who agreed with the petition of Center Point Management (CPM) that the company’s $22 million bid should have won, since it was higher and the County has an obligation to sell the property for the most money.

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Bikes

Watch the Husqvarna 701 Supermoto Do Its Thang

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Maybe it’s because my supermoto season officially ended this weekend (without me, I should add), with our last scheduled sumo session at the go-kart track here in Portland passing by this weekend, or maybe it’s because we just want the Swedish brand to deliver the Husqvarna 701 Supermoto already…either way, consider our appetite whetted by this last video from Husky.

Finally giving us a showing of the 701 Supermoto on a proper race track — not that the ice course with spiked tires wasn’t cool (no pun intended) — we get to see the 701 at home in its natural element: hitting apexes, sliding tires, and crushing lean angles.

We imagine that the nearly as powerful, and considerably lighter Husqvarna FS 450 supermoto would be the better weapon on the track, but the 690cc power plant on the Husqvarna 701 Supermoto is certainly the better choice for a machine that will roll a tire on public roads…and that’s sorta the point of the machine.

We’ll be eager to see this Husqvarna hit showrooms in Europe this November, and thus being the long wait for it to come to the USA in February 2016. Could the Husqvarna 701 Supermoto be the ultimate city hooligan bike? Time will tell…we’re certainly eager to find out, though.

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MotoGP

Bradley Smith’s Dream MotoGP Track is Awesome

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Have you ever wanted to create your own dream track? Take the best corners from all the MotoGP tracks, and combine them into one epic venue for motorcycle racing? That’s pretty much Bradley Smith has done for us today, and it’s awesome.

When it comes to riders who are adept at explaining the nuances and technical aspects of riding a MotoGP motorcycle, Bradley Smith ranks as one of the top riders. This year has been a breakout season for Smith, maturing both on and off the track, with the Englishman showing strong results on the track.

It’s a bit of a mystery as to why Bradley doesn’t have a signed contract for the 2016 season, though we suspect there’s more than meets the eye taking place behind closed doors.

Silly season issues aside, we’re pretty intrigued by Bradley’s choices for his dream track. Checkout which corners made the track after the jump, along with a video that explains Braldey’s picks, with commentary by his teammate Pol Espargaro.

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MotoGP

MotoGP: 2016 Becomes Clearer as Brno Secures 5-Year Deal

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The future of the MotoGP round at Brno has finally been secured. The regional authorities have stepped in to secure funding for the Czech Grand Prix for the next five years, starting from 2016.

A deal has been struck with the Czech Ministry of Education and Sports, the City of Brno, and the Moravian regional government to ensure that the Czech round stays for the foreseeable future.

The round had been in doubt for some time, as haggling over finances between the circuit, the city council and the regional government saw the sanctioning fee go partially unpaid for the past several years.

The rights to the round have now been placed with a new and separate organization, run by the various regional and national governments involved, who will organize the round at the Brno circuit. With the financing in place, the race will continue for at least the next five years, and probably beyond.

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Event

At the Laguna Seca World Superbike Race Weekend

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A race is more than just a race. This past weekend, both the World Superbike and MotoAmerica motorcycle road racing series came to one of the most fabled tracks in America, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

The racing was exciting, yet the crowd was not nearly as big as you would think. Maybe it was the threat of rain. Maybe it was the lack of TV coverage. Or maybe it was the fact that a lot of American riders have never been exposed to motorcycle racing and don’t know what a race weekend is all about.

Do folks think a race weekend is just sitting in the hot sun watching bikes droning around the track in endless, boring circles? Of course it’s not! Sure, there’s lots of racing, and as in any outdoor event, Mother Nature can be a factor, but there is so much more to a race weekend.

Many riders who didn’t grow up as race fans may not realize that a motorcycle race is more than just a race; it’s an event – a gathering of the motorcycling community. It doesn’t matter if you ride a cruiser, a tourer, or a sportbike. A race weekend offers something for everyone.

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Racing

Ordos International Circuit – China’s Forgotten Race Track

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In Inner Mongolia, Ordos City is known better to the Western world as “China’s Ghost City” – a name that came about after a report by Al Jazeera and an article by Time magazine, both of which featured the newly built Chinese prefecture-level city, in all its failure.

The name comes about because of the massive construction projects taking place in Ordos, and the essentially non-existent population that lives in them.

This situation even more true in the Kangbashi New Area, where there is a goal to house one million residents (the actual current capacity is 300,000), though only 50,000 to 100,000 people claim the city as their home.

Many words have been written about Ordos, its buildings, its failures, and its future, though little has been said about the Ordos International Circuit.

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Racing

Tooele County Aims to Keep Motorsports Park Running

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The Tooele County Commission is searching for a new operator of the Miller Motorsports Park, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

With the Miller family set to stop operating the track and its facilities at the end of October this year, the county is keen to find a new business partner to lease the 500 acres of land to.

“Our major interest is to enter into a partnership, whether that be an outright sale or a lease” with an entity whose “core competency” is running a facility like the one the Millers are abandoning, said County Commissioner Sean Milne, while speaking to the The Salt Lake Tribune.

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News

Miller Motorsports Park To Cease Operations

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It is a sad day for motorsports fans near Salt Lake City, as Miller Motorsports Park will cease operations at the end of October this year, the track has announced.

The news comes from the Larry H. Miller Group (LHM), the track operator, which has decided not to renew its lease with Toole County on the property, thus effectively closing the track and ceasing its operations.

This news will not affect the schedule of racing events (including the MotoAmerica round in June), driving schools, public karting access, and other group activities that are currently planned at the facility, but it does raise some question marks regarding what will happen to the space once the LHM is no longer running it.

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MotoGP

Video: Two Minutes at COTA With Kevin Schwantz

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The eyes of two-wheeled fans may be honed in on Qatar right now, but our mind is already thinking of MotoGP’s first stop in the USA this season, at The Circuit of the Americas. Helping whet our appetite for the Texan race is local boy himself, Kevin Schwantz.

Now that COTA and Schwantz have settled their differences, the former-World Champion is passing his time as an ambassador for the Americas GP. As such, we have a video of #34 going around the 3.4-mile GP circuit, explaining the course’s various aspects while aboard the 2015 Suzuki GSX-R1000.

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