No Moscow, no surprise

As has been long expected by the cynics (read, realists) in the WSB paddock, the proposed 14-round 2015 FIM Superbike World Championship will not feature an event in Moscow Raceway after all.

The planned Russian race was cancelled last year after the dual realities of a lack of funding and the political situation between Russia and the Ukraine hit home, and again this year financial issues have been quoted as the reason not to go ahead at Moscow Raceway on 5^th July.

The official press release states… “Dorna WSBK Organization and the FIM, Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, regret to inform of the cancellation of the Russian Round scheduled to be held at Moscow Raceway on July 5^th 2015.

The Russian event promoter, YMS Promotion, has not provided the required contract guarantees defined by DWO to confirm and implement the event organisation.”

There will be no ‘super-sub’ to keep the calendar at 14-rounds and the loss of the Moscow race also means that the local WSS squad that had proven podium finisher Vladimir Leonov, and one other unnamed rider, down to compete in 2015 will not now take part in the championship.

The release confirmed that, “The Round will not be replaced and the 2015 WSBK Calendar will consist of the 13 confirmed events… As a consequence, the Moscow Region Yakhnich Motorsport Team which applied to the FIM Supersport World Championship will not participate in the series for the 2015 season.”

The calendar is now as follows: 

DATE	COUNTRY	CIRCUIT	WSBK	WSS	STK1000
22 February	Australia	Phillip Island GP Circuit	X	X
22 March	Thailand	Chang International Circuit	X	X
12 April	Spain	MotorLand Aragón	X	X	X
19 April	The Netherlands	TT Circuit Assen	X	X	X
10 May	Italy	Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola	X	X	X
24 May	UK	Donington Park	X	X	X
07 June	Portugal	Autódromo Internacional do Algarve	X	X	X
21 June	Italy	Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli	X	X	X
19 July	USA	Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	X
02 August	Malaysia	Sepang International Circuit	X	X
20 September	Spain	Circuito de Jerez	X	X	X
04 October	France	Circuit de Nevers Magny Cours	X	X	X
18 October	Qatar	Losail International Circuit	X	X