The British round of the MotoGP World Championship will be held at Donington Park in 2015, it was announced this week.
The following year, the race – the motorcycling equivalent of Formula One – will be held on a new racing circuit in Wales.
A five-year agreement was signed last month to host the event at the Circuit of Wales. But the site in Blaenau Gwent is not yet built and will not be ready in time for the MotoGP next summer. Development work is expected to start later this year or in January 2015, according to the South Wales Argus.
Most recently the MotoGP has been held at Silverstone in Northamptonshire, but prior to 2009 Leicestershire’s Donington Park was the long-term home of the British round.
Christopher Tate, managing director of Donington Park, welcomed the decision and said that preparations would start immediately. It was clear from opinion polls on fan forums and motorcycling websites that there was strong public support for the race to be held at Donington, he added.
Negotiations on holding the race were held over the past three weeks. Chris Herring of the Circuit of Wales said that it was important to make a decision on 2015 as soon as possible “and in Donington Park we have a venue that shares our vision for growing MotoGP in the UK.”
The Circuit of Wales will now partner with Donington Park on the promotion of the 2015 MotoGP.
The date for the race is expected to be announced later this month, but a limited number of early bird tickets are available now.