WorldSBK Executive Director Dani Carrera confirmed in Thailand that there will be a final decision on the appearance of an Argentinean round of the WorldSBK Championship in 2018 shortly before the next race weekend of this season. The event is scheduled for mid-October but there have been delays in creating an all-new track from scratch.
“Our target is to confirm Argentina during the week of the Motorland Aragon round,” said Carrera. “I will be going to Argentina the week before Aragon, to have a meeting with the local government and the promoter. We have already expressed our concerns about the evolution of the works one month ago. They were having bureaucratic problems about who was taking care of which areas of the construction; this was solved one month ago so they have been able to accelerate their works. We will see what the situation is and we will evaluate if they are in position to be ready for October or not. We do not want to take any risk but obviously the government and the promoters are very enthusiastic, optimistic, and they will push to have the event this year. We will see the final decision and if it is not possible, and we prefer to not take any risk, the project will just be postponed to start in 2019.”
If the race in Argentine is not going to go ahead in October of this year, then Jerez will step in. “The alternative is Jerez and we have already confirmed with them,” said Carrera. “They are just waiting on us after this meeting in Argentina to see what the position is. So we can guarantee the same number of events.”
By Gordon Ritchie