SEPANG, Aug 4 — Sepang International Circuit (SIC) chief executive Datuk Razlan Razali said next year might be the last for Malaysia to host the World Superbike Championship.
Razlan said the World Superbike Championship was not profitable since it was hosted last year.
“The turn out this year was down to 22,664 compared to last year when 34,000 spectators turned out.
“One of the reasons for the lower turnout is that we don’t have any local rider in the competition. This keeps the local following for the race down.
“We will observe next year’s race and see it there’s a possible turn around, or else we may have to bid goobbye to the race,” he said, stressing the actual target for spectators this year is 35,000.
Razlan said he will offer wild card entries to local riders next season if there is none competing through the year.
“From there we will observe the feed back. If its still the same or worse, we need to stop hosting the race,” he said.
However, Razlan said it was generally difficult to attract fans for the race.
“Like MotoGP, we just see the postives turn around from the past five years. Whereas we have been hosting it for 25 years,” he said.
