MANDALIKA, Indonesia – The Superbike World Championship final round on the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok drew tens of thousands of fans on Sunday, the largest crowd for any event in the country since the start of the pandemic. coronavirus, as Toprak Razgatlioglu became the first- ever Turkish driver to win the title.
Razgatlioglu, a Yamaha rider, won the WorldSBK championship after finishing second to six-time world champion Jonathan Rea in Race 1 at the seaside circuit. Both races were held on Sunday after heavy rainstorms on Saturday forced Race 1 to be rescheduled.
In the final race, Razgatlioglu led comfortably with 30 points ahead of defending champion Rea, a Kawasaki rider. His win makes him the first driver to beat Rea for the WorldSBK title since 2015.
Cahyadi Wanda, vice president of the Mandalika Grand Prix Association, said that the number of participants at the newly built Pertamina Mandalika International Circuit surpassed 20,000 on Sunday and around 15,000 in the free practice session on Friday, Cahyadi Wanda, vice president of the Mandalika Grand Prix Association said.
The new 2.6-mile track, inaugurated by President Joko Widodo last week, features 17 corners, 40 garages and a starting line 507 meters long. The grandstand has a capacity of up to 50,000 people and a total capacity of 200,000 people.
The World Championship is Indonesia’s first major international motorsport event in more than two decades, with authorities saying it is seen as a launchpad for a tourism revival in one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. the country’s most famous destination.
Only fully vaccinated spectators or those with a negative COVID-19 test will be allowed to enter the circuit.
Indonesia is one of the countries hardest hit in Asia by the pandemic. Its COVID-19 downloads, which peaked at around 56,000 daily cases in July, have dropped dramatically, with around 500 cases per day over the past week.
MotoGP is one of the most watched sports in Indonesia, but it has been 24 years since the country hosted a MotoGP round in the West Java city of Sentul.
A much-awaited MotoGP race will be held at Mandalika in March as the second Grand Prix of the 2022 season.
Indonesia managed to get on the racing calendar but struggled to get a world-class lap until Widodo’s government in 2015 chose Mandalika, on the picturesque island of Lombok, next to Bali, to build. Build a new track from scratch.
Like Bali, Lombok is known for its pristine beaches and mountains.
The 130-hectare sports complex project includes a hotel and other facilities, located in the Mandalika special economic zone. This is part of a $3 billion economic development program supported by the central government, of which $1 billion has been allocated to build a racetrack to support local tourism and accelerate development. developed in the eastern part of the country.
Previously, there were doubts that the route could be completed in time for the WorldSBK Indonesia round as construction encountered a number of obstacles, including environmental issues, the coronavirus, and reports of traffic jams. local people lost their homes, land and livelihoods.
Mr. Rahmat Panye said that about 43 families in Bunut village who refused to sell their land still live on a piece of land in the middle of the road, while another 300 have been relocated to another area far away from the frenzied pulse or have moved back. their homeland,” said Rahmat Panye. village chief of Bunut hamlet.
Indonesia hosted MotoGP races in 1996 and 1997 and Superbike races from 1994 to 1997, but after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, the country was forced to suspend hosting of motorsport. .
