The first draft of the 2018 World Superbike Championship calendar has launched, revealing a 13–round schedule that sees the return of Brno and confirms Argentina as the penultimate round.
The 2018 season is set to start once again in Australia at Phillip Island from February 23–25, with an official test at the circuit preceding the opening round on the Monday and Tuesday of race week.
A month break follows before the season resumes in Thailand, with the first European stop of the year taking place at MotorLand Aragon in Spain on April 13–15. Assen follows just a week later, with Imola on May 11–13 and Donington on May 25–27 up next.
For the first time since 2012 WorldSBK will race at the iconic Brno circuit in the Czech Republic on June 8–10, before the series heads to Laguna Seca in the United States on June 22–24.
While the US round has signalled the end of the opening half of the season in recent years, the Championship’s second stop in Italy at Misano will be the last round before the seven–week summer shut down.
The season will continue on September 14–16 in Portugal and September 28–30 in France.
The recent DEKRA takeover of the Lausitzring to turn it into a testing facility means Germany has been struck from the 2018 calendar, despite WorldSBK having a year left on its contract with the circuit. Jerez has also been dropped from the schedule.
The inaugural Argentine round and WorldSBK‘s first–ever visit to South America at the new El Villicum circuit in San Juan was expected to be backed with the US round, but has instead been pencilled in as the penultimate round of the year.
The season will conclude a week earlier than this year in Qatar on October 25–27.
