In a moment of( im) perfect timing, the official announcement that Phillip Island would lose the Australian Round of MotoGP after 2026 came just as the WorldSBK circus was at the same track gearing up for Round One of the 2026 season. I know the next few paragraphs here are more immediately relevant to MotoGP and less so to WorldSBK but humour me here for a moment, if you will …
CIRCUIT ROULETTE MotoGP will move to a street circuit in Adelaide from 2027 and it seems likely that WorldSBK, which under current agreements stays at Phillip Island for another year, could leave the Island in 2028. If WorldSBK leaves PI, where’ s it likely to land? Perhaps to the same Adelaide street circuit that will host MotoGP or perhaps to The Bend, a relatively new, but now well-established, circuit some two hours from Adelaide itself. Or are we staring at the last hurrahs for WorldSBK in Australia and once it leaves Phillip Island, that’ ll be the end of WorldSBK Down Under for the foreseeable future. Worst case, could WorldSBK 2026 be the last time we see this production based series at The Island? What to make of these moves given that
the Phillip Island track is generally loved by riders and is invariably described as‘ iconic’ every time something important runs there? The venue had perhaps been living on borrowed time for a while. Whilst it’ s still one of the most glorious ribbons of tarmac in the racing world, and its location harks back to an earlier era of racing, it’ s far from perfect. Paddock and spectator facilities are poor [ thats a teeny bit of an understatement- Ed ] by international standards and whilst the relevant parties had committed to upgrades to address longstanding issues, something that perhaps should have started twenty years ago, that wasn’ t enough to secure a future for MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group( MSEG) events at the island. MSEG is what Dorna has become in the wake of Liberty Media acquiring the organisation that currently has promotion rights for MotoGP until 2060. The state of Victoria, where PI resides, was given the opportunity to retain the event if it agreed to move it to the Albert Park F1 street circuit, but that option was rejected by the authorities on logistical grounds. PI was never, it would seem, in Liberty’ s plans regardless of whether it was upgraded or not. The issue that appears to have sealed the deal is that Phillip Island is in the wrong place.
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