Thai Grand Prix rescheduled for October

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Thai Grand Prix rescheduled for October

 

FILE PHOTO: Motorcycling - MotoGP - Thailand Grand Prix - Chang International Circuit, Buriram, Thailand - October 6, 2019 Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez and Petronas Yamaha SRT's Fabio Quartararo in action during the race. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

 

(Reuters) - The Thai MotoGP round that was called off due to the coronavirus outbreak has been rescheduled for Oct. 4 with series organisers hoping on Thursday to complete as many races as possible in 2020 even if the calendar has to extend late into December.

 

The date change means that the Aragon Grand Prix in Spain will be brought forward a week to Sept. 27.

 

Thailand would have been the second round of the MotoGP season on March 22 but the race at the Chang International Circuit in the northeastern Buriram province was postponed on Monday.

 

The season-opener in Qatar scheduled for this Sunday has been cancelled due to quarantine and visa restrictions on visitors from Italy, with only the second and third tier Moto2 and Moto3 categories racing.

 

The new opener will now be at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on April 5.

 

Carmelo Ezpeleta, chief executive of MotoGP rights holder and promoter Dorna, told reporters at Qatar's Losail circuit that 13 races was contractually the minimum for the world championship to be valid.

 

"Our aim is to do, if we can, the 19 remaining races," he said. "And they are possibilities.

 

"Even in the worse case, even in the most cancellations, we have time. Maybe we will race in countries where it is hot in Christmas. Our duty is to make races and we will do races.

 

"Maybe they need to postpone the FIM prizegiving ceremony," he said of a gala scheduled by the governing body for Monaco on Nov. 22.

 

The season is scheduled officially to end in Valencia on Nov. 15.

 

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Toby Davis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-06

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[ukrules]

Right at the start of 'flu season'

[Don Mega]

6 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Right at the start of 'flu season'

Same weekend in October as last years race, it ran without any Flu issues.

[ukrules]

30 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

Same weekend in October as last years race, it ran without any Flu issues.

That's great news so long as this new one is completely gone by then!

[Don Mega]

12 minutes ago, ukrules said:

That's great news so long as this new one is completely gone by then!

There is the possibility that the beer virus is not contained or worsens.... if that happens it won't only be Thailand that is affected.

Time will tell but Dorna is doing what it can to keep the MotoGP running.

[meechai]

My guess is this is a no go for most.

 

Many already lost money on non-refundable travel & hotel

 

For them to now re-book for Oct on a wing & a prayer? Not likely

 

Should be good for those already living in or near Buriram though as it will be easy to attend if it goes on at all.

 

[Deli]

Gives me a chance to attend. That's the good part ????

[fxe1200]

2 hours ago, meechai said:

My guess is this is a no go for most.

 

Many already lost money on non-refundable travel & hotel

 

For them to now re-book for Oct on a wing & a prayer? Not likely

 

Should be good for those already living in or near Buriram though as it will be easy to attend if it goes on at all.

 

 

We are all better off and spend money saved to fight hunger in the world. Everybody is taking about the virus, but hardly anybody realizes, that there are still 25.000 humans die from hunger  -  EVERY DAY!

[Caldera]

That's the spirit, I love the optimism! If things don't get better by then, they can still cancel it.

 

Needless to say it's a great event for Thailand and they got a lot of praise for how they handled the first one.

 

[nahkit]

6 hours ago, meechai said:

My guess is this is a no go for most.

 

Many already lost money on non-refundable travel & hotel

 

For them to now re-book for Oct on a wing & a prayer? Not likely

 

Should be good for those already living in or near Buriram though as it will be easy to attend if it goes on at all.

 

A friend told me on Wednesday morning that this was a possibility, went on to Agoda to book a room in Buri Ram and they were already 85% sold out. They only offered me 3 places and they wanted over 13k baht for 2 rooms in the only one that was located in the city. Place I've stayed at for the last 2 GP's in Surin was also fully booked, seems to me that the agencies were given prior notice of the re-scheduling.

 

If a lot of those travelling from overseas decide not to attend at least I might get a chance of a seat in the Grandstand this year.

[Don Mega]

7 hours ago, meechai said:

My guess is this is a no go for most.

 

Many already lost money on non-refundable travel & hotel

 

For them to now re-book for Oct on a wing & a prayer? Not likely

 

Should be good for those already living in or near Buriram though as it will be easy to attend if it goes on at all.

 

Its worked out great, 3 friends in  Aus that could not attend in March will now be coming in October taking us up to a group of 10 riding up from Pattaya.

[Don Mega]

20 minutes ago, nahkit said:

 

 

If a lot of those travelling from overseas decide not to attend at least I might get a chance of a seat in the Grandstand this year.

Grandstand is not sold out so why not buy one now ?

 

 

[nahkit]

1 hour ago, Don Mega said:

Grandstand is not sold out so why not buy one now ?

 

 

Because I already have side-stand tickets for the cancelled, March event. Once I know that I can get a refund on them, then I will try to get Grandstand seats.

[Don Mega]

10 minutes ago, nahkit said:

Because I already have side-stand tickets for the cancelled, March event. Once I know that I can get a refund on them, then I will try to get Grandstand seats.

March wasn't cancelled so I see no reason why ticket not valid at re-scheduled October race.

[nahkit]

4 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

March wasn't cancelled so I see no reason why ticket not valid at re-scheduled October race.

You've lost me now, March not cancelled?

 

As I said, no point in me buying a GRANDSTAND ticket for Oct until I know that I can refund my March, SIDESTAND ticket.

[nahkit]

1 hour ago, Don Mega said:

Grandstand is not sold out so why not buy one now ?

 

 

Where can I buy a ticket for the re-scheduled event? Allticket.com only has a link for the cancelled, March event.

[Bluetongue]

9 minutes ago, nahkit said:

Where can I buy a ticket for the re-scheduled event? Allticket.com only has a link for the cancelled, March event.

I would suggest wait til they get their act together. March was postponed, not cancelled so you may not get a refund, in which case you could probably use the ticket in October. If you subsequently bought a main stand ticket and wanted to get rid of your side stand ticket sell it to a scalper

 

[Don Mega]

10 minutes ago, nahkit said:

You've lost me now, March not cancelled?

 

As I said, no point in me buying a GRANDSTAND ticket for Oct until I know that I can refund my March, SIDESTAND ticket.

my bad, I missed the side stand part.

 

March was never cancelled so not sure where you are getting that information from other than some misinformed people on this forum.

[Bluetongue]

The MotoGP site probably has main stand tickets, I dunno may be more expensive

 

[nahkit]

1 minute ago, Don Mega said:

my bad, I missed the side stand part.

 

March was never cancelled so not sure where you are getting that information from other than some misinformed people on this forum.

Well it's definitely not going ahead in March.

[Don Mega]

Just now, nahkit said:

Well it's definitely not going ahead in March.

Thats prolly because it was postponed and now rescheduled to run in October.... Do you understand this or will it need to be explained a 3rd time ?

[nahkit]

1 minute ago, Don Mega said:

Thats prolly because it was postponed and now rescheduled to run in October.... Do you understand this or will it need to be explained a 3rd time ?

Your just playing with words now.

[Don Mega]

2 hours ago, nahkit said:

Your just playing with words now.

How many different meanings does postponed have and how am I playing with ?

[fpexpert]

I contacted Allticket about my tickets for the March event and they said they were refunding the money so it seems the tickets for the October dates will need to go on sale sometime soon!