FIM announces first Intercontinental Games for motorcycle racing

On Saturday during the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix, a special press conference was held to announce the new FIA-sanctioned event.

The Games will be held biannually, with the first ones taking place this year in November.

The first year of the Games will see racing take place only on race circuits, but the future plan is for the event to also include off-road competitions.

The event is being sponsored by Yamaha, Airoh helmets and Spidi leathers, and while FIM president Jorge Viegas wants international superstars from MotoGP and World Superbikes to take part, sponsorship clashes will stop many from taking part.

The bikes being used for the first year will be Yamaha R3 and R7 machines, which will be raced on Dunlop tyres.

Teams will be country-based and feature four riders, one of which will be a female racers.

Each team will have a captain, who is supposed to be from a world championship, while the other two riders will be from national series.

The first event will take place at Jerez at the end of November. The weekend format will see free practice run on Friday, qualifying on Saturday and two races for each bike class on the Sunday.

“This is a project that is more than 20 years [in the making],” said FIM president Viegas.

“One day in the FIM, we thought when we created the continental unions it would be very beneficial to create some kind of competition between the continental unions.

“This doesn’t exist anywhere, so this is the first time you are going to see riders dressed [in the colours] of European [countries], African [countries], Oceania, Latin America and North America.”

The event’s broadcast creation will be handled by MotoGP and WSBK promoter Dorna Sports, which will distribute the live feed through Warner Brothers Discovery and Eurosport.

The overall winner award of the event will go to the best team over the course of the four races, while the FIM says there will be individual prizes for the best male and female rider.