The World Superbike Championship (WSBK) sometimes feels like the forgotten child of motorcycle racing, and that's a hard pill to swallow. The championship features some of the best two-wheeled racing you'll find anywhere, often besting MotoGP in terms of excitement over the past few years. However, Nicola Bulga has turned it into a one-man show of late.
Fans in the States haven't had a home race since 2019, which took place at the iconic Laguna Seca circuit. This is a crying shame for fans, but it also hurts the 10 brands taking part in the series, or 13 if you count the accompanying Sportbike World Championship, which are missing out on coverage in the US.
As reported by SpeedWeek, BMW Managing Director, Markus Flasch, said, “As a global manufacturer, we are naturally interested in competing in a global series. In reality, the WSBK has now become a European championship. What Dorna decides and what it makes of the series is not my responsibility. Nor do I believe that Dorna will significantly change its strategy just because we get on board in one country. It’s down to whoever organizes the series to want it.”
Unfortunately, it takes more than fan and manufacturer interest to add a round to the WSBK calendar, which already features 12 events. Liberty, which owns WSBK, has budgeted for 12 rounds, meaning its partners aren't going to pay to add a 13th. If another race were to be added in the US, it would have to be self-sustaining, and that's a bigger issue than it sounds because it costs Liberty about three times as much to hold a round overseas compared to Europe.
There might be another way to get a US round added to the calendar, however, and it doesn't require that event to sustain itself. It's uncertain if two out of the 13 current rounds will continue to have a place on the calendar, namely the Balaton Park circuit in Hungary and the Jerez circuit in Spain. If either of those events were dropped from the calendar, it would open up a spot for a new circuit. This new addition would likely go to a track in Asia, but a US track isn't out of the realm of possibility.
According to SpeedWeek, an insider at the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, said, "We have big plans.", and reportedly indicated that a 5-year contract could be in the works. It's no secret that Barber has shown interest in hosting a WSBK round for years, but whether or not their wish is granted still remains largely out of their hands.
