Source: Supplied.

The high-profile Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC) is working to include a round in Australia from the 2018 season, potentially to be held at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia.

Currently being constructed, The Bend is due to be completed early next year, however an announcement initially made by ARRC organisers earlier this month confirming the event was removed soon afterwards.

Instead, that announcement was replaced by a statement that the ARRC organisers will form a strategic alliance with the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) in a bid to strengthen the sport’s ties between Asia and Oceania into the future.

It’s understood that regulations will be aligned where applicable and rider development will be paramount, but the previous confirmation of an Australian round was revised to state that the ARRC is ‘working closely’ with Motorcycling Australia (MA) to finalise a solution. MA CEO Peter Doyle told CycleOnline.com.au it was still a case of work in progress.

“It’s no secret and I think we would have spoken to you about two years ago regarding this,” Doyle told CycleOnline.com.au. “We’ve been in discussions regarding closer ties and Ron [Hogg] came to Phillip Island to have a look at the final round of ASBK. There have been discussions about hosting a round here and we have agreed to move forward, to try and coordinate an event together. As far as confirming if it’s actually on, not quite yet.”

If the Asian championship does in fact move forward to featuring an Australian event, it’s anticipated that it will be alongside a round of the revitalised ASBK series if differing commercial arrangements can be worked through. MA is yet to announced next year’s ASBK calendar.

The ARRC series has established itself as a premier championship throughout Asia – featuring SuperSport 600 as its primary category – and has had an extensive Australian rider involvement over the years, including experienced international Ant West. This season saw rounds contested in Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and India.