FIM Intercontinental Games
We recently showcased the news that the inaugural FIM Intercontinental Games will be part of the FIM’s 120th anniversary celebrations at Jerez over the weekend of December 1.
This first edition will be dedicated to circuit road racing before expanding to include other disciplines (Motocross and Enduro) as the event becomes established biennially.
We recently discussed how the riders for the inaugural FIM Intercontinental Games will be selected with Motorcycling Australia head honcho Peter Doyle. Trev also quizzed PD on what funding riders will be required to bring, in order to earn a seat on one of the R7 or R3 motorcycles supplied by Yamaha Europe. We were pleasantly surprised by some of the answers, as I am sure many readers will be.
Peter Doyle
“I reckon this will be a good deal, Trev, so hopefully, within the next 10 days, I’m hopeful that you’ll see an EOI go out to Australians and New Zealanders. For us, it’ll be Oceania, and we’ll be calling for expressions of interest.
“Tyres, helmets, leathers, boots, gloves, mechanics, air travel, hotel transfers, licenses, and insurance will be supplied; it’s basically a walk-up and ride.
“Obviously, we’ll (Oceania) be the biggest recipient given that you know we’re all the way over here, while the likes of the Spanish and many other countries will just have to drive down the road.
“So we’ll open up to expressions of interest for all the riders that, one, obviously want to go. Two, given that it will be on Yamaha motorcycles, you must wear Spidi leathers and Airoh helmets.
“I would assume with the market they’re targeting, not too many people will be restricted by their domestic contracts here in Australia. Most of the targeting is obviously towards, we’ll say, the more junior riders, but with some more senior riders as captains.
“So, there must be a mix of the experienced and the young. That’s from our side; that’s the concept. We try to get some experienced riders on there. If you could have a Halliday or a Jones leading the crew, why wouldn’t you?
“And if you had to look through our list of young guys, with Stauffer, Dunker, or you’ve got the likes of Cam Swain that are already overseas, we’ve got riders everywhere.
“We’ve got some fast women, look at Tara Morrison, how well she’s going. Tayla Relph’s doing the Women’s World Championship this year. We’ve got to have a female in its class. So I think when you start looking at that pitch, we could produce a pretty strong team, but also a reasonably good team to show the potential of some of the young riders against the rest of the world.
“Dorna are going to produce the television, everybody riding the same bikes. I think there’s an opportunity for people to shine.”
And the FIM is funding the whole lot?
“It’ll be free, Trev.”
Free? The travel, the whole lot, will be paid for?
“Hotel transfers, licenses, boots, leathers, gloves, helmets, nothing. I think it might even include food. The final details are still to be promulgated, but it is a good deal, that’s for sure. So we at Oceania will make sure that that’s all done, but the plan is that they won’t have to fund anything.”
Well, excellent. I’m sure that’ll get a lot of people excited.
“We will be putting all this information out in at EOI. (Expressions of Interest). That’ll go out across Australia and New Zealand soon.”
And who will make the selections and under what criteria?
“Selection for these events is always, you know, going to be a touchy subject. So, first of all, we wait to find out who puts in the expression of interest that they want to go. And then we obviously will have to look at the form of those riders. And the selection will be made by the Oceania board.”
More on the FIM Intercontinental Games
Riders will wear their CONU team colours with electronic airbag suits and gloves supplied by Spidi. Boots will be supplied by Xpd, while Airoh will provide all riders with their GP 800 helmets.
Dunlop will be the official tyre supplier and will also provide its racing service throughout the competition, while BETA UTENSILI will support the FIM Continental Unions with their professional mechanical tools and toolboxes.
The FIM Intercontinental Games will unite the six FIM Continental Unions (CONU) of Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, Latin America and Oceania, providing an outstanding international platform for young and experienced riders.
Each Continental Union will select four riders, including at least one woman per class. Each team will be able to select another rider participating in an FIM World Championship who will be nominated as team captain.
In 2024, the competition will take place over four races, two per class: R7 and R3. The points awarded to each rider based on their ranking will be added to the points of the other team members to determine which of the six FIM Continental Unions will be the first to win the Games.
