After an unplanned, months-long vacation, World Superbike will return to action on the July 31 weekend.
Like most motorcycle racing series, World Superbike saw considerable disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. After the season opener, on March 28 at Australia’s Phillip Island track, WSB had to put its plans on hold. Pandemic quarantine measures made racing impossible. Like MotoGP, WSB’s planners were challenged by a constantly-changing situation, but now we’ve got confirmed race dates for the rest of the 2020 season, as well as a few potential races.
First, the confirmed events: The series will open with a July 31 race weekend at Jerez. From there, racers will head to Portugal for the August 7 weekend, and then there’s back-to-back weekends at Aragon on August 28 and September 4. On the September 18 weekend, racers head over to Catalunya, and then on to Magny-Couers on October 2.
From here, things get dicey. WSB has scheduled the Argentinian round for the October 9 weekend, and currently has Misano running the season-ending event on the November 6 weekend. Neither of those race weekends are confirmed, though. World Superbike also has potential races at Donington Park, Assen and Losail on the schedule, but those are all listed as “To Be Determined.” At this point, the early-season schedule is looking pretty crowded, and later in the season, Assen and Donington Park could be tricky spots for racing.
Going into the season, Jonathan Rea and the Kawasaki factory team were likely the favourites to win the championship; Rea has been basically unstoppable at Kawi. Now, though, we could be looking at a very different world when things re-open. Interesting times, indeed.
