Hot on the heels of our earlier release in which we promised you some exciting news, comes the provisional calendar for the 2023 season.
Agreements have been reached to take our sport to no fewer than ten countries in a fourteen-round season. If we accept that Northern Ireland, whilst part of the UK, is another ocean crossing and effectively a different landmass, then we have eleven venues.
This is a massive step-up from recent times and is the result of a Herculean effort by the WSC team, the FIM and the various organisers across Europe.
It is particularly encouraging to see some great names and historic locations return, along with new countries welcoming the spectacular sport of Sidecar motocross for the first time.
We have now well and truly emerged from the shadow of the global crisis which blighted our lives for so long, and 2023 will be the first real opportunity to bring you a full-blown championship with all the thrills and drama that come with it.
Spain and Portugal set the ball rolling with back-to-back events at the end of March into April. Talavera de la Reina is our first port of call followed by a new name, that of Alqueidao, located north of Lisbon.
Then it’s off to the Czech Republic in early May where Loket and Kramolin are both vying for the action. A final decision is yet to be taken as to which venue will host round three.
The Netherlands is next up late May with Heerde negotiations well underway, followed by a much-welcomed return to Brou, in the first of two visits to France.
Then there are three rounds back-to-back, with a sensible and sympathetic geographic spread. June 10/11 sees a return to Lange in Estonia, with the following weekend heading west into Poland at Gdansk to a new track still to be confirmed, before a return to the sand of Lommel in Belgium to round out the month of June.
After a two-week break, it’s three more weekends on the trot starting with Strassbessenbach also still to be finally confirmed, one week before the first GP to be held in Northern Ireland since the inaugural FIM Sidecar Motocross World Championship in 1980. The Whitehead track was the venue on that occasion, having also hosted the 1979 Championship round when it held European status. This time we will be at a new track in Red Brae.
Still in the UK with England as the host nation, arrangements are in the final stages to run at a new track for Grand Prix action. The date is set in stone and the organisers are still ironing out the detail, but an announcement is imminent.
After a summer breather of almost one month, battle is resumed in the Czech Republic at Kaplice, a popular and testing venue at the end of August.
Mid-September sees us back at the fantastic Rudersberg in Germany, scene of such a dramatic finale in 2022.
That honour of the deciding final round now falls to the magnificent Castelnau de Levis in France. We are truly thrilled to be going back in France with its huge spectator following and strong sidecar motocross traditions.
As always, the Nations team event falls in October, with Cingoli in Italy strong favourites to play host.
This list is impressive, and whilst there are one or two areas of detail still to be finalised, we can safely say this will be a busy, exciting and totally fulfilling season for all concerned.
The WSC team will be on-site producing the TV highlights show for even wider global distribution in 2023, with all the news, reports and action across our Social Media platforms and on www.fimsidecarcross.com
