Lahti Events does not agree with the message of the International Motorcycle Federation that the geopolitical situation has affected the cancellation of Kymiring’s MotoGP event. According to AKK’s CEO, there is no prospect that the situation will affect the World Rally Championship in Jyväskylä.
Joel Sippola,
Ossi Saarinen
25.5. 19:30 • Updated May 25th. 19:34
The International Motorcycle Federation FIM and Lahti Events announced on Wednesday that Kymiring’s MotoGP event in July will be canceled this year.
– Unfortunately, we do not agree with this message. We are doing other international events. It is clear that the track inspection has not been successful. That is the real reason for the (cancellation), CEO of Lahti Events Emilia Mäki comments.
CEO of Kymiring Riku Rönnholm he said last week that “things are going according to plan”. However, last week’s inspection revealed safety deficiencies.
– Building tire walls is a really slow task. Quite a bunch of bolts and nuts are needed to build it. The supply chain was broken at many points. There was a risk that we wouldn’t have the ramparts completed, and Dorna didn’t want to take that risk, Rönnholm said on Wednesday.
– For us, the geopolitical situation affects the availability of goods, delays and supply chain disruptions.
The withdrawal of MotoGP due to the geopolitical situation also made headlines around the world. For example BBC News (switch to another service)that one of the reasons for the cancellation of the Games was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was also mentioned in the story that Finland’s NATO application is not in Russia’s mind.
According to a FIM release, Kymiring is scheduled to run MotoGP next year. Rönnholm does not believe that Dorna Sports’ interest in the Finnish race will wane, even if motorsport fans do not get there from Russia.
– At least in the discussions with Dorna, this has not come up. If they had thought so, they would have told us.
Does the situation in Russia threaten sporting events in Finland?
The situation in Russia and possible reactions to Finland’s NATO application may in some way affect major sporting events in Finland.
The CEO of AKK, which organizes the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship Riku Bitterin AKK intends to go through issues such as e-ticketing in the event of cyber influence.
– I am not an expert, but the same technical systems related to the competition itself are used elsewhere. Of course, we are closer to Russia than many other race organizers. We also see this in Estonia, where we drive in July.
According to Bitter, neither the rally World Cup promoter nor the International Automobile Federation have expressed concern about the geopolitical situation.
– There is no prospect that this will affect our arrangements. Sure, when this (Russian invasion) started, they asked what the impact of our assessment is, Bitter says.
The Jyväskylä World Rally Championship will be run from 4 to 7. August. will show all the special stages of the competition live.