WorldSBK: Balaton Park and Cremona added as 2024 calendar announced

Dorna has announced the 2024 WorldSBK calendar with two new venues.

The 2024 WorldSBK calendar has been announced with a 12-round season in store for next year. The Championship will head to Hungary next season with another round in Italy at a new venue.

The Mandalika Circuit in Indonesia has been dropped from the calendar after having its place on the calendar for three years. The Circuito San Juan Villicum in Argentina was also dropped after this year’s race was cancelled due to political reasons.

The season will begin at the end of February in Australia and is the only round outside of Europe in 2024. There will then be a month gap until round two, taking place at Catalunya in March. In April the riders will head to the legendary TT Circuit Assen for the Dutch round of the year.

Round four will be their first visit to Italy before a doubleheader at Donington Park and Most in July. Portimao returns to the calendar in August before heading to Hungary for round eight of the year.

The first new venue of the season will be at the new Balaton Park which was opened at the beginning of 2023. The 2.55-mile circuit cost €200 million to build and is named after a nearby lake.

The circuit is also a reserve venue for the 2024 MotoGP World Championship with the aim to eventually have a slot on the full-time calendar. The circuit has not held a motorcycle race yet with only a handful of events taking place so far.

Magny-Cours will take place at the start of September before the riders face another new venue.

It was also announced that the WorldSBK paddock will head to Italy twice next season with another new addition. The Cremona Circuit will host round 10 of the WorldSBK Championship in September.

The Cremona circuit has 13 turns and is located between Monza and Imola in the Lombardy region. It is a popular circuit for testing with Axel Bassani and Federico Caricasulo previously riding on the track. There are 26 garages at the circuit, however, there are no grandstands around the circuit for spectators yet.

SPEEDWEEK.COM spoke to track manager, Alessandro Canevarolo who said: “We have already carried out some important extension work. Essentially, we still need to increase the spectator capacity and thus create the conditions to be able to hold the World Superbike Championship.”

Motorland Aragon will be at the end of September, taking its usual place on the WorldSBK calendar. For the final round, the Championship will end the year in Jerez for the second season in a row.

Image credit: worldsbk.com