MotoGP: GP of Japan Rescheduled for October Due to Volcanic Travel Disruptions

What Happens When Iceland Disrupts an Asian GP

11:51am EST — Various sources, though not the FIM or Dorna, have announced that next weekend’s MotoGP round in Motegi has been rescheduled for October 3.  MotoMatters.com (from GPOne), Superbike Planet, and Duacti rider Nicky Hayden have all noted that the round will not occur on April 24 as scheduled, due to the European travel disruption caused by an ash cloud resulting form a volcanic explosion in Iceland.  Currently, air travel in much of northern Europe is at a standstill.  Hayden noted on Twitter, “wow japan postpned [sic] due to volcano that’s a first for me, but if teams cant fly would have been hard to have a race with no riders or teams.”  Superbike Planet still has the story as unofficial, saying that “Motegi will have their Grand Prix, but on October 3.”  MotoMatters has sourced its story from GPOne (see here, in Italian), saying “Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpeleta started phoning round team bosses to investigate whether the teams could get enough of their staff to Spain and Italy to fly out to Japan. But there were some teams for whom even this would be impossible, and it was decided to call off the entire event.”  Editor David Emmett also noted, “Indeed, our own attempts to contact teams has proven difficult, with only some teams managing to respond to your requests, and conflicting information from those who did reply. Eventually, though, it became clear that the event had been canceled.”

So, word is pretty definite that there won’t be a Japanese GP until October, just one week before the Malaysian GP and two weeks before the Australian GP.  That is three far-flung, flyaway races in a row, very near the end of the season.  The bigger problem now is how to get the bikes and equipment (shipped directly from Qatar to Japan) back to Europe for the next race, at Jerez, May 2.

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