ASC Calendar drops Winton – Extra Rnd at SMP
Statement from Australian Road and Track Rider Promotions Terry O’Neill
2016 Swann Superbike Championship Calendar Update Announced … Three Rounds At SMP!
Some great news for competitors there will now be three rounds of the nationally televised Swann Insurance Superbike Championship series at New South Wales ever popular premier race circuit Sydney Motorsport Park and two at Queensland’s premier race circuit.
Unfortunately these changes have had to come about because of circumstances beyond our control. As the organisers and promoters of the high profile nationally televised Swann Superbike series we pride ourselves on delivering over many years the one stable dependable national series in this country that all of our competitors and teams can rely on.
We have only very recently been informed that the Benalla Auto Car Club has had a change of direction on RACERS Permits at Wakefield Park and Winton. As RACERS is our preferred permit and insurance provider this has given us no choice other than to move these two events to other venues which has taken some arranging at this late stage.
Looking at the new calendar we believe it is a big improvement in that the extremely popular Sydney Motorsport Park is now to host three rounds and the great for tv coverage Queensland Raceway has two rounds. Another plus is the calendar now on average has over seven plus weeks between rounds making it even easier for privateers to compete in and the changes to the calendar come at the end of the year giving everyone a long lead time to plan ahead.
The replacement SMP round will be on the same weekend as the previously scheduled Winton round. The new QLD Raceways round is now on the 28th – 30th October which is exactly seven weeks after round four and seven weeks prior to the series finale. We will expand our bike and gear transport package from Sydney to include this round as well.
Insurance for ASC
I can confirm that all six of our rounds of the championship series will be run under RACERS Permits, Licencing and Insurance system. RACERS National Competition Licences can also be purchased for $210 per year through either Queensland Raceway or by contacting us.
MA competition licences are also accepted by RACERS, so all competitors have a choice of which sanctioning body they wish to get a licence from and use. By the way the RACERS personal accident policy has greater benefits for competitors than the MA policy has at their events, again MA licenced riders at our events get the same RACERS Insurance cover and benefits that RACERS licence holders receive.
Looking forward to 2017 our plan is to run two rounds in Queensland, one at Qld Raceway and a planned round at Lakeside Park once scheduled improvements are finalised. We had hoped to have the second replacement round at Lakeside this year but it was going to be too tight for the track owners to have the planned improvements done in time. In other news we are looking at heading back to three day events at all but the series finale in 2017.
Again I can confirm that every round of the six round championship series will receive both national free to air TV and Pay TV coverage, being 3 x one hour shows on both SBS Speedweek and 3 x one hour shows on Fox Sports. Each of the six rounds of the ASC will once again have free production quality live streaming coverage of all of the days racing and post-race interviews.
We are once again looking at having live TV coverage of the series finale like we did in 2015 which was very popular and helped once again to raise the profile of the sport in this country.
So while we have faced some issues beyond our control these have taken some time to sort out they have not stopped us from being able to once again provide the highest profile and watched motorcycle road race series in the country.
For further details please contact the managing director of Australian Road and Track Rider Promotions Terry O’Neill on 02 4981 2315.
*Updated 2016 Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship Calendar
- Rnd 1 … 11th – 12th March Sydney Motorsport Park (Fri-Sat Day/Twilight)
- Rnd 2 … 27th – 29th May Mallala Raceway SA
- Rnd 3 … 8th – 10th July Queensland Raceway Qld
- Rnd 4 … 9th – 10th September Sydney Motorsport Park
- Rnd 5 … 28th – 30th October Queensland Raceway Qld
- Rnd 6 …16th – 17th Dec Sydney Motorsport Park (Fri–Sat Day/Twilight)
Editor’s Note
For Reference here is the 2016 ASBK Calendar
- Round 1 – Phillip Island GP Circuit, WSBK, Vic 25-28 February
- Round 2 – Wakefield Park Raceway, NSW 25-27 March
- Round 3 – Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW 16-17 April
- Round 4 – Barbagallo Raceway, WA 3-5 June
- Round 5 – Morgan Park Raceway, QLD 6-7 August
- Round 6 – Winton Motor Raceway, Vic 30 September – 2 October
