Dorna Motor Sports has announced a new race series aimed promoting young racers and helping them start their racing careers.
The new race league is called the FIM MiniGP World Series, and it is a novel approach to finding young racing talent, ages 10 to 14, around the globe.
The concept is simple: Dorna and the FIM have created a standardized racing format that clubs at the national, regional, and continental levels can adopt, which creates a level playing field for young racers to make their mark.
According to the regulations set out by the FIM, each MiniGP series will run a minimum of four events, with eight races, and they must have a minimum of 15 permanent riders at each competition.
The racing will take place on go-kart tracks, with riders on Ohvale GP-0 160 race bikes, with spec Pirelli tires.
Dorna is requiring that the first event take place by July 2021 (with the last event being held no later than October 17th), which might be a big ask considering the current state of the coronavirus pandemic.
The payoff for racing well is a chance at jumpstarting one’s racing career, as the top competitors from the various series will have the chance to race at a World Final, which will take place during the week leading up to the final MotoGP event of the season
The winner of this World Final (subject to age and location/nationality), will secure a spot in one of the Road To MotoGP programs on the next level of the FIM’s stepping stones to grand prix racing, e.g. the Asia Talent Cup, British Talent Cup, Northern Talent Cup, or European Talent Cup.
“The FIM MiniGP World Series is the first step for all the young kids on their path to achieve their dream and reach the FIM MotoGP World Championship!” said FIM President Jorge Viegas.
“This is the starting point that was missing in the ‘Road to MotoGP’ that will allow every talented rider to step on the ‘podium’, with an extremely low budget.”
“Also, this FIM/Dorna initiative puts the National Federations at the forefront of the system, because it is up to them to fully organize the national series and to hand-pick the best from each country, that will be present in the World Final in Valencia.”
“Dorna and the FIM have been working on this project for a few years now; it is now becoming a reality and I would like to thank our Promoter and give an additional incentive to all our affiliated federations.”
Source: Dorna
