Motor
Thursday, September 19, 2024, 11:35 a.m
Author: Tamás Balogh; Photo: Red Bull Content Pool, Balaton Park Circuit
On Thursday, at the press conference held at the Balatonfókajár track, it was announced: next year, the brand new location will host the Hungarian Grand Prix, which is returning to the MotoGP calendar.
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On Thursday, an international press conference was held at the Balaton Park Circuit race track, which was handed over last year, at which it was announced in the presence of Dorna president Carmelo Ezpeleta: from 2025, the location of Balatonfőkajár and the Hungarian Grand Prix will be included in the MotoGP race calendar.
According to the announcement, the Superbike World Cup will also visit our country, Balaton Park has been added to the calendar.
At the press conference, it was said that the agreement was for several years from August 2025, and later it turned out that it was signed for ten years, from 2025 to 2034.
Before the August 22-24 MotoGP race, the Superbike race will be the track’s main test at the end of July, but they would also like to carry out a MotoGP test before that.
It was said that the date after the 20th was requested because of the Balaton summer season, and from 2026 they would like to bring the Superbike race forward to May so that Lake Balaton is not overcrowded in that period.
Must be modified on the field
It is important that the contract with Balaton Park is valid for three years, and the possibility of moving the event to the Hungaroring will be examined later.
Mrs. Walterné Dancsó Adrienn, representing the track, said that the pit areas must be modified at several points in order to host the MotoGP and Superbike races. Work will begin in October and is scheduled to be completed by March.
The (modified) trace will look like this:
According to Gábor Talmácsi, in addition to the current main stand, several mobile stands will be installed, and according to his opinion, the facility will be able to accommodate 40,000 spectators a day.
He added that, according to preliminary calculations, we can expect lap times of 1:35-1:40 from the MotoGP bikes, which is positive from a spectator point of view, because the number of laps in the races can be high, meaning that the competitors can be seen several times during an event.
In the history of the World Speedway Championship, the Hungarian Grand Prix was held twice, in 1990 and 1992, when the Hungaroring hosted the races.
The revival of the competition in Hungary has long been a topic here: between 2008-2010 they wanted to organize MotoGP at the Balatonring, but that project – which is not the same as the current Balaton Park Circuit! – went bankrupt, while in 2020 the construction of a new track was announced for Hajdúnánás, but due to the economic difficulties caused by the coronavirus epidemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war, that investment was stopped at the very beginning.
The Balaton Park Circuit was officially included in the MotoGP calendar this year as a reserve and Superbike World Championship schedule as a real venue, but the latter race was cancelled, while in connection with the former, there was no question of entering the venue despite the fact that several grand prix were canceled.
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