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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.

Alvaro Bautista, Team HRC, Leon Haslam, Team HRC, Michael Ruben Rinaldi, Team Goeleven

Alvaro Bautista, Team HRC, Leon Haslam, Team HRC, Michael Ruben Rinaldi, Team Goeleven

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 Portugal Estoril
May 21-23 Spain Aragon
June 11-13 Italy Misano
July 2-4 United Kingdom Donington Park
July 23-25 Netherlands Assen
September 3-5 France Magny-Cours
September 17-19 Spain Barcelona
September 24-26 Spain Jerez
October 1-3 Portugal Portimao
October 15-17 Argentina Villicum
November 12-14 Indonesia Mandalika
TBC Australia Phillip Island
TBC TBC

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