WORLD SUPERBIKES RELEASE 2024 CALENDAR

The calendar for the 2024 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship has been revealed. Combining the familiar and the new, this season will see the production-based championship race at two circuits for the very first time.

As in 2023, the 2024 WorldSBK Championship consists of 12 rounds, bookended by Phillip Island in February and Jerez in October; the latter replaced San Juan de Villicum in Argentina last year. The absence of the Argentine round, as well as the Indonesian round at Mandalika, means that Phillip Island will be WorldSBK’s only flyaway round for 2024. Phillip Island will also host the final pre-season test, on 19-20 February.

Within the 12-round calendar, some returning venues have been shuffled compared to 2023, with Catalunya moved from May to March and Portimao from September to August. Catalunya will also be the venue for a Supported Test on 14-15 March.

Big gaps between rounds 2 and 3, and rounds 3 and 4, are broadly similar to last season, but there’s also almost a month without racing between rounds 4 and 5.

The two all-new venues on the 2024 WorldSBK calendar are Balaton Park in Hungary and Cremona Circuit in Italy. While WorldSBK has raced in Hungary before – at the Hungaroring between 1988 and 1990 – Balaton Park is an all-new venue that’s both FIA and FIM homologated. Located south-west of Budapest, on the shore of Lake Balaton, the 4.115km, 16-corner (6 right, 11 left) circuit opened in May, 2023. Balaton Park is also a reserve venue for MotoGP this season and will be added to that championship’s calendar from 2025.

The other new addition is the Cremona Circuit in northern Italy, which signed a four-year deal with WorldSBK late last year. Located near Milan, Cremona Circuit will be resurfaced and extended from 3.71km to 3.79km ahead of the championship’s arrival on 20–22 September. The final three turns (11, 12 and 13) of the 13-corner (6 right, 7 left) circuit will also be changed as part of this upgrade. New grandstands and modernised facilities for Race Direction are being added as well. Much of this work was already underway when WorldSBK announced last October that Cremona Circuit would be added to the 2024 calendar.

Both new circuits are subject to homologation and will only host the World Superbike and World Supersport classes, with World Supersport 300 to run an 8-round season.