Indonesia hosts World Superbike finale on brand-new circuit

MANDALIKA, Indonesia (AP) — The final Superbike World Championship round on the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok drew tens of thousands of fans on Sunday, the biggest crowd for any event in the country since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as Toprak Razgatlioglu became the first-ever Turkish rider to win the title.

Razgatlioglu, a Yamaha rider, secured the WorldSBK championship after finishing second behind six-time world champion Jonathan Rea in race one at the beachside circuit. Race one and race two were both held Sunday after heavy thunderstorms on Saturday had forced race one to be rescheduled.

In the final race, Razgatlioglu held a comfortable lead of 30 points over the reigning champion Rea, a Kawasaki rider. His win makes him the first rider to beat Rea for the WorldSBK title since 2015.

The crowd at the newly built Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit surpassed 20,000 on the final day on Sunday and about 15,000 during a free practice session on Friday, said Cahyadi Wanda, the vice president director of the Mandalika Grand Prix Association.

The new 4.3-kilometer (2.6 miles) circuit, inaugurated by President Joko Widodo last week, has 17 corners and 40 garages and a 507-meter start-to-finish straight. The grandstand can accommodate up to 50,000 people and the total capacity is 200,000.

The world championship was Indonesia’s first big international motorbike race in more than two decades in what authorities said was being eyed as a launchpad for the revival of tourism in one of the country’s most popular destinations.

Only fully vaccinated spectators or those with negative COVID-19 tests were allowed into the circuit.

Indonesia was one of Asia’s hardest-hit countries by the pandemic. Its COVID-19 caseload, which peaked around 56,000 daily...