2017 World Superbike Championship Calendar Announced; Portimao Added

The World Superbike Championship will contest of 13 rounds, same as this year, which have been spread across three continents. While Portimao, Portugal has made a comeback next year, the organisers have dropped Jerez, Spain and Sepang, Malaysia from the line-up.

The 2017 season will kickstart in Australia as always, and will move to the Chang International Circuit in Thailand, before heading to Europe. Then, the races continue at Aragon, Assen, Imola, Donington Park, Misano and then Laguna Seca in the US just before the summer break.

Another interesting thing to note is that WSBK has reduced the summer break to a month in the 2017 calendar, and will be starting the races at the Lausitzring in Germany post the break. The races then continue at Portimao and Magny-Cours, while the final race will be taking place as usual in Losail, Qatar.

That said, organisers are yet to announce the location for the penultimate round of WSBK. The calendar currently says TBA (To Be Announced), even though speculations do suggest that the Brno Circuit in Czech Republic could be added to the calendar this year.

The 2017 season of WSBK will also see a new class added to the championship - World Supersport 300. With the rising demand for quarter-litre offerings globally, the series is a highly anticipated one and was announced earlier this year.

The World Supersport 300 is an entry-level series and will see riders take on each other on single-cylinder and twin-cylinder sports bikes. Manufacturers Honda, KTM and Kawasaki are already building their homologated race bikes based on road going machines like the Yamaha YZF-R3, KTM RC 390 and Honda CBR500R.

As far as the 2017 championship is concerned, defending champions Kawasaki Racing Team (KRT) will be looking to retain the title. Jonathan Rea has been winning the riders championship title for two consecutive seasons now, and will be looking to complete his hat-trick in 2017, while facing close competition from teammate Tom Sykes as well as Ducati's Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri.