Why Sepang said goodbye to the world’s second biggest superbike championship

(Marketingmagazine.com.my) – By: Malati Siniah

Poster for the recent WorldSBK Championship in Malaysia

Having hosted the world’s second biggest two-wheel motorsports championship from 2014 to 2016, Sepang International Circuit (SIC) announced that it would not be renewing its contract to host the FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) in Malaysia.

In a statement SIC Chief Executive Officer Dato’ Razlan Razali shared that the decision was made due to the current financial climate and the organization’s commitment to improve its existing facilities.

“As we are looking to avoid financial risks at the moment, we feel it is best to reserve resources for our two biggest international events – the Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix and the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix.” Dato’ Razlan shared.

The last WorldSBK Championship was held in May this year and was the first time Malaysia had its full-season entry with Muhammad Zulfahmi Khairuddin narrowly missing the top spot by 0.005 seconds.

Dato’ Razlan shared that despite the great performance by Fahmi which generated plenty of the interest in the event ‘all the factors as a whole’ had to be considered when the decision to not host the event was made.

“We hope the future will offer other opportunities to bring WorldSBK back to Malaysia. Nevertheless, we will continue to support Fahmi´s career through to 2017, inside the Supersport FIM World Championship in all the ways we can,” added Dato’ Razlan

The main event sponsor for this year’s WorldSBK Championship was global crane and truck loading technology manufacturer Fassi.

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For details, contact Ruby on 03-77262588, [email protected]

Download event PDF here