Logistical problems resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine forced the rescheduling of MotoGP activities in Termas de Río Hondo

The World Speed Motorcycling Championship returned to Argentina after two years of absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the previous one was complicated by failures in logistics with two of its cargo planes. Dorna, the company that manages MotoGP and its two minor categories, is having trouble adding transports because the majority are Russian and 20% are not available due to sanctions resulting from that country's invasion of Ukraine. The schedule at the Autódromo de Termas de Río Hondo, in Santiago del Estero, had to be rescheduled and the activity will start on Saturday.

After the second date of the season, held in Indonesia on March 20, the five planes used by Dorna to transport equipment material and the tire supplier company made their way to Tucumán Teniente Benjamin Matienzo International Airport, and then travel 90 kilometers by truck to the city of santiago.

One of them had a valve failure in one of its four engines when it stopped in Mombasa, Kenya and prevented it from arriving in Argentina this Wednesday night. The first aircraft that had arrived in Tucumán was looking for the goods that had the fault, but after arriving in Africa it had another failure and had to stay with the other plane.

“What we did was to find the parts and send them with two private planes to Mombasa. One will arrive, if all goes well, in a couple of hours, and the other a little later. We hope that everything is resolved so that tonight, that around eight o'clock the flight can leave. It is impossible for everything to be here in time for tomorrow (by Friday) and, since everything is done is the same for everyone, it has been decided according to the teams to start on Saturday,” Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna, explained at the press conference.

“We have learned a lot in these 30 years with freight flights and there aren't many either, only 120 or 140 around the world. The problem has been aggravated by the war in Ukraine. Many of the freight planes were Russian or from Russian companies. 20 percent are now unavailable because of sanctions. We have no solution but to hope that the repair of Mombasa's planes will go well,” he said.

“Maybe we have to make sure more about the races in a row, but this time it wasn't so and we couldn't solve it. This is the 499 grand prize that we organized and it is the first time it has passed. Our first goal is to celebrate this race,” he added.

What you need to transport are the materials and bikes of the official Ducati MotoGP team and its satellite teams, Pramac Racing, Mooney VR46 Racing Team (Valentino Rossi's) and Gressini Racing. In addition, there are covers that are necessary for everyone to have the rubber sets that the activity requires.

If everything is completed in a timely manner, the activity will start on Saturday with a schedule that will start at 8.45 am and end at 5.45 pm. There will be no interruption and those nine hours there will always be motorcycles on the track. It will be the training and qualifying rounds of MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3.

The trip from Lombok, Indonesia, to Thermae consisted of five flights. Three of the planned routes took cargo from Lombok to Tucumán through technical stops in Mombasa, Lagos and Brazil. On the other two routes, the cargo was planned to travel from Lombok to Doha, from Doha to Accra in Ghana and then to Tucuman.

What will happen if the plane doesn't arrive on time on Friday? The issue will be complicated because the other weekend will be held in Austin, United States and in principle there is no place on the calendar to rearrange the date. But Ezpeleta is optimistic that he will be able to carry out the Argentine date.

The last time the MotoGP and its two minor categories raced in Termas de Rio Hondo was in 2019. For 2020 the date was scheduled for April, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic the date was canceled. It was rescheduled for 2021, although it could not be done either due to the logistical drawbacks of the pandemic.

In February last year, the santiagueño racetrack suffered a voracious fire that destroyed the boxes and the entire VIP sector. As the infrastructures were secured, they could be rebuilt without the province putting a penny and the new garages look impeccable and at the top of the VIP a grandstand was placed.

As every year since 2014 (except for the aforementioned interruptions), a racetrack full of people is expected. On the streets of Termas you can see a large number of visitors, including from neighboring countries, especially Brazil, which has no date for the World Speed Championship on two wheels.

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