Image: Jake Skate.

Motorcycle Road Race Development (MRRDA) chairman Paul Edwards remains open to discussions as Motorcycling Australia (MA) assesses its options for the future of the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) after splitting with International Entertainment Group (IEG).

The MRRDA series, which has played a pivotal role in producing a number of the sport’s current elite racers, had been in the race for the 2014 promotional rights late last year until MA eventually opted to retain IEG – promoter of the ASBK since 2009.

However just one round into this year’s championship MA announced it had parted ways with IEG, cancelling the scheduled second round that was to be held alongside the V8 Supercars at Darwin last weekend and, instead, MA itself will host the second and final round at Phillip Island in July.

With 2015 quickly becoming the focus, it’s anticipated that MA will return to a structure where clubs and potentially private promoters will run one-off events for next year and the foreseeable future, operating under that format for the first time since 2003 before Terry O’Neill took the reins for the next five years.

The MRRDA is on target to introduce its highly anticipated Summer Series now scheduled to commence in January at Sydney Motorsport Park, headlined by the Australian version of Honda’s Junior Cup category utilizing the CBR500R. Since the series’ initial launch, Superbike and Supersport categories have been dropped from the five-round schedule.

But Edwards has revealed to CycleOnline.com.au that the MRRDA wouldn’t object to reintroducing the nation’s premier categories as the new-look ASBK championship if a number of impacting terms were met with MA. He insists though that taking on the ASBK is far from a priority at this point following unfavourable dealings with the governing body regarding the series previously.

“I have had discussions with Peter Doyle and Braxton Laine and put my views forward,” Edwards told CycleOnline.com.au. “We have had very low levels of discussions, but there’s certainly nothing for anybody to get excited about.

“I’m not sitting here thinking we’re having meaningful discussions about ASBK; as far as I’m concerned our plans are still steaming forward with our plans we put out there. If MA decided that they want to talk to us in detail, courtesy of the new team there, we are more than happy to talk to them.

“We’re no longer doing Superbike and Supersport in any form with what we’ve got planned for next year, but if they came to us and said we’d like to talk about including those classes and classifying every class as a championship, we would certainly discuss that. But right now we are nowhere near any stage that even needs to be considered.”

For further information on the MRRDA series as it currently stands, visit the brand new website at www.mrrda.com.