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Shanghai says farewell and Sepang hosts a night race
The World Championship has only just started but the MotoGP never ceases to look to the future and it is already working on next season`s calendar. Dorna Sports, the company that organises the championship, has been looking at the circuits that will host a race next year and four of them have contracts that end in 2008: Losail, Estoril, Shanghai and Sepang.
The current season started with a big novelty, a night time race, at the circuit of Losail in Qatar. It was a success and helped the organisers to reach an agreement for a new contract that will run until 2016, the same year that the contract with the Circuit of Assen expires. At the same time Estoril in Portugal has also managed to negotiate an extension and will be in the calendar until 2011, along with the majority of the circuits in MotoGP.
However, Carmelo Ezpeleta the CEO of Dorna Sports, has announced to the media that the circuit of Shanghai has hosted it last ever MotoGP race. Next year its place could be taken by Hungary but the race would not be at the Hungaroring, where Formula 1 goes. There are another two cities bidding to organise the event: Szazhalombatta and Balatonszentgyörgy.
The other circuit hoping to get an extension to its contract is Sepang, a circuit with a very good chance of doing so, although it seems more than probable that it will host a night time race. After the success in Qatar Dorna is ready to hold two races under floodlights in the same year. However the negotiations with the owners of the track in Malaysia will not take place until October when the penultimate race of the season takes place.
4/18/2008
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