Source: Supplied.

The high-profile Asia Road Racing Championship is targeting an Australian round to be introduced within the next two years in 2017 or 2018, with Sydney Motorsport Park the primary circuit on the agenda for series organisers.

A wide assortment of Australian riders have been a constant in the ARRC series during recent seasons, which boasts immense factory support direct from the Japanese manufacturers as a development platform for Asian talent.

With the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) working more closely with its continental union affiliates including FIM Oceania and FIM Asia, there’s an increasing opportunity to build relations between Motorcycling Australia (MA) and the ARRC organisation.

“We are definitely looking at Australia to be an option for the venue and I have been discussing with [MA CEO] Peter Doyle about this,” ARRC director Ron Hogg told CycleOnline.com.au this week. “We would much prefer [Sydney Motorsport Park] just from a logistic point of view for us, but I guess it’s up to the MA to sort that part out.

“We are hoping as early as 2017, if not by 2018, as we are looking at expanding the championship from six to eight rounds in the forthcoming future, so we hope MA could be the promoter for the championship in Australia.”

Hogg believes it would be of significant value to the ARRC and Australian road racing to work more closely on Australasian rider development. An intended transition from a 600cc to 1000cc premier class in the ARRC come 2018 would additionally open the doors for our top domestic Superbike contenders to crossover.

“We believe due to the proximity we should work more closely in developing the riders,” Hogg added. “It is a pity a lot of young riders head to Europe without enough mileage, even from Asia itself, and find themselves drown in the atmosphere, so ARRC will be a perfect place to grow oneself.

“Yes, we are moving towards 1000cc in 2018, at this moment the manufacturers are in limbo because part of the championship is about developing riders and the 600cc is perfect for that, however with that being no new models in the pipeline the move to 1000cc is an obvious one.”

MA CEO Peter Doyle also confirmed to CycleOnline.com.au that communication with Asian championship representatives is ongoing. He’s supportive of the series hosting an Australian round amidst a rise in domestic road racing.

“We are having some discussions with the Asian Road Racing Championship and they’ve made it quite clear that they would like to discuss having a round here in the next couple of years,” Doyle commented. “There are some good things on the horizon and there’s a lot of factory support over there – they’re all heavily involved.”

The Asia Road Racing Championship currently boasts 108 different riders from 12 countries in 2016. Its six rounds include visits to Malaysia (Johor), Chang (Thailand) twice, Japan (Suzuka), Indonesia (Sentul) and India (Buddh Circuit).