MotoGP’s planned debut at the Sokol International Circuit has become something of a soap opera. At this point, it is quite understandable that most of the paddock’s members doubt that the Kazakhstan race will ever take place.
The ‘show’ has offered several chapters. Dorna, the rights holder for the event, first introduced Kazakhstan on the 2023 calendar. Under the slogan “New circuit, new challenge”, the Spanish company published a video as a hook, informing fans about its impending premiere.
It’s unlikely that any of the executives who made the decision to embark on this exotic adventure could have foreseen the true extent of this “challenge”, which will remain pending until at least 2025. The cancellation of the first edition was reported in April last year, once it became clear that the track’s delayed homologation would not be possible in the two months remaining before the scheduled race. This was then postponed for 2024, specifically for the month of July.
When the season started in March, rumours hinting that work on the facility and the services that any event must guarantee – stewards, doctors and so on – had some shortcomings were already starting to spread. At the beginning of May, Dorna reported another postponement of the race to a later weekend, but without a specific date.
At the time, the reason for the temporary suspension was given as “unprecedented” flooding in the Central Asian region, which forced the Kazakh authorities to declare a state of emergency and evacuate a large part of the population. Therefore, “it would not be responsible for MotoGP to add any additional burden to the authorities or services as they work to help the tens of thousands of people affected across the country,” stressed the statement which gave no further details about the new schedule.
Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta has seen his championship’s dalliance with Kazakhstan repeatedly frustrated
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The explanation offered at the time was perfectly understandable; the one given for cancelling the Indian Grand Prix was not. If the first edition of the event at the Buddh circuit was already a considerable effort for many of those who were there, there are reasonable doubts as to whether there will be a second.
As Autosport reported at the time, local promoter Fairstreet Sports failed to honour its financial commitment to Dorna for the 2023 grand prix, and there was no indication that it…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Autosport.com – MotoGP – Stories…