It was announced earlier today that the 2019 World Superbike championship will now include a Laguna Seca round during the July 12-14 weekend. An earlier calendar issued by the championship left Laguna Seca off, after an apparent dispute regarding the terms with the California track operators. Along with the World Superbike events, Laguna Seca will also be hosting the MotoAmerica championship and its supporting classes.
Here is what was posted on the World Superbike website earlier today:
Laguna Seca set to host ninth round from 12th – 14th July
County of Monterey and Dorna WSBK Organization are delighted to announce WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca will once again be a stop on the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship calendar in 2019.
Set to welcome the WorldSBK paddock from 12th – 14th July, round nine of the championship will be directly after the UK WorldSBK Round at Donington Park and will be a perfect way to see the series head into the summer break.
Laguna Seca has hosted SBK® since 1995 – with a small gap from 2004 to 2013 – and is a well known staple on the calendar. An ever popular round for fans, riders and teams, it has seen 15 different race winners over the years, but it has been Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) who has made his mark over the past two seasons, winning the last three races around the undulating 3.61km track.
Perhaps the biggest attraction for this added race is the track. Great place to visit and see racing.
It might even be a half decent race this year with the new Beemer and Duc in the mix. Jonathan Rea is the real deal, but the ability to pull out a 2-3 bike length gap on every main straightaway is a huge advantage in road-racing.
Their new marketing tagline for Laguna Seca was also introduced, “WSBK – see an European export that is more awful than a two dollar Chianti”.
After the preceding story regarding the T- Scram, and its spectacular response from all the happy go lucky motorcyclist, where is the energy about Laguna Seca ? Somebody has to have an opinion . Wind it up gang ! Yee Har !
What do you care?
About racing – nothing, about motorcycles, half of everything that is left. Just nice to see enthusiastic comments from people with a shared interest, and that leads to fresh perspectives. Try it.
From the looks of things. WSBK is only slightly more popular that American Superbike, which is lucky to get covered here at all any more.
Four stroke rules sucked the life out of racing. Before them, I attended motocross and road races regularly. I wanted to travel to Europe and check out some races.
After them, I lived in Europe for five years and never bothered to go to a single race. It’s all dead to me now. They jumped the shark over a decade ago and can now only be seen by people willing to pay for a ticket just to watch it on a screen.
I don’t see how the engine rules have changed anything. The bikes have gotten much more powerful and safer to race but it’s hard to say how they would’ve progressed if they had stayed 2t’s. In the later days of 500cc go, it cost $1m/yr to LEASE the only available competitive bike (Honda) without suspension & wheels. It’s still wallet racing.
America used to have a pretty strong road racing program, it was covered here for instance. It produced world class road racers for decades. Then the four stroke rules came along and support from the manufacturers dried up. How many American road racers do you now see on the world stage?
On the motocross side, the costs quadrupled. Teams that survived have half as many riders. Those riders get paid much less.
The biggest problem 500GP had was the 500 part. Tire and chassis development had the manufacturers scrambling for more power. In the end, they were making 400hp per liter or more. Now that the 250 features 768cc bikes. The idea of a 500cc premier class seems kind of ridiculous doesn’t it?
2-stroke was never a factor in US road racing. American motor racing’s woes have nothing to do with engines.
I’m glad they kept the race, but I’ve been much more of a MotoGP fan than WSBK since I became interested in racing. I’ve tried a number of times to get into WSBK, but it just never quite grabbed me. And past few seasons have been so dull I haven’t spent any money at all on the series. I likely wouldn’t make plans to go to the race from where I live unless the season has real promise of getting interesting.
I may actually give WSBK another go this year as I am interested to see how Alvaro Bautista does on the new Ducati. He was a very good and underrated rider in MotoGP, IMO, and I think he may have something for Rea if the Ducati can be brought up to snuff fairly quickly.
Comcast dropped Bein Sports last summer also. You can stream the coverage on demand online thru Videopass. They sell access by the month or by the season (a month is about $20). You can get MotoGP or WorldSBK but have to pay for them separately. Bummer!
I’m not doubting the accuracy of your information, but it makes no sense. If all of the people in the USA who would subscribe to WSBK as a single package were put into a VW Beetle, there would still be room left over to wedge in a few clowns. I know people who follow MotoGP and Flat Track. I know people who even go to the Isle of Mann for the TT. I can’t remember the last time I heard someone talk about watching WSBK. It’s as dead here as racing on boards in velodromes.
I get Directv and they dropped Bein sports. Any other source for Motogp?
Fubo TV is a app on Amazon Fire TV. It cost about 30$ a month and it has Bein sports (all channels) plus 30 Hr of cloud DVR.
EBIN is the only channel to broadcast in the USA.
Just a friendly correction. That should be BEIN Sports. I make the same typo at times. BTW…Great uninterrupted coverage.
Does anyone know if there will be a cable channel televising these races in the U.S.?
BeIn sports televises AMA, SBK and MotoGP
Good! I was there in 2018. May go again in 2019. Enjoyed Ducati Island.
Someone used the wrong font color.