As eyes now turn towards the 2019 season of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, the SBK Commission, which was held on November 30 in Madrid and is made up of Gregorio LAVILLA (Sporting Director and President WorldSBK), Takanao TSUBOUCHI (MSMA ) and Paul DUPARC (Rezsö BULCSU Deputy and secretary of the meeting), decided, with the presence of Charles HENNEKAM (FIM CTI Coordinator), Scott SMART (FIM WorldSBK Technical Director) and Daniel CARRERA (WorldSBK Executive Director), to confirm Central European Standard Time (CST). The weekend format has therefore found its definitive form.
The 2019 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship will also change in other ways. Test sessions will be reduced from four to three, meaning WorldSBK will only have two sessions on Friday. The WorldSSP will not be affected, however the WorldSSP300 will be divided into two groups which will each have two sessions. Friday's times will not affect qualifying positions.
Saturday will offer a major change as the Tissot Superpole will now become a single qualifying session for all categories. The results of the Tissot Superpole WorldSBK will define the grid positions for Race 1 and Sunday's Sprint Race, now called the Tissot Superpole Race. In WorldSSP300, drivers who do not qualify for the first race will have a “Last Chance” race. The first six to cross the finish line will qualify for the final meeting on Sunday.
Four races will take place on Sunday, including two in WorldSBK. The first will be a brand new Sprint Race format which will take place over 10 laps (throughout the season) and whose points will be added to the general championship classification* and allocated to the Tissot Superpole Race like this: 12/9/ 7/6/5/4/3/2/1. There will be no changes for Race 1 and Race 2, where the points system will remain unchanged and will reward the top 15 drivers as follows: 25/20/16/13/11/10/9/8/7/6 /5/4/3/2/1.
The second WorldSBK race on Sunday will follow the traditional format. The grid will be determined based on the first nine places in the Tissot Superpole Race, then the positions from the tenth driver will take over the Tissot Superpole. With three races and different formats, teams will have the opportunity to work on various strategies throughout the weekend while drivers and fans enjoy even more exciting races. The weekend will then end with the WorldSSP300 race which is always very exciting until the finish line.
source: FIM Communications
