WorldSBK Calendar for 2020 Released with No Laguna Seca Round

The 2020 WorldSBK Championship calendar has just been released by the FIM, and the 13-round series has some interesting changes for next year.

For American fans, the most obvious and notable change is the lack of a race in the United States, as Laguna Seca has been dropped from the schedule.

Other big changes include moving the Qatar round from the last race of the season, to the second race of the season, which means that it will take place just one week after the MotoGP season-opener at Losail.

The Thai round at Buriram is gone, but we see the addition of Oschersleben, which means that World Superbike racing will return to Germany.

In all, the WorldSBK Championship heads to 11 countries (double dipping in Spain and Italy), though 9 of the 13 stops on the calendar are in Europe, which is disappointing to see from the “World” Superbike series.

Though we are disappointed to see it go, the American round at Laguna Seca has been in question for the past several years now, as the Californian track continues to struggle with management concerns with Monterey County.

We get news today that SCRAMP will no longer manage the historic race course, with a new party (A&D Narigi Consulting) coming in to take on management duties.

Our Bothan spies tell us though that we could see WorldSBK return for the 2021 season, with the Barber Motorsports Park taking over duties for superbike racing in the USA.

Though not a particularly good track for motorcycles with over 200hp, the facilities are perhaps the closest we can get to FIM standards, besides the Circuit of the Americas, of course.