Meet Dorna Sports Boss, SOE Minister Discusses MotoGP 2023 Preparation

SOE Minister Erick Thohir (center) met with Dorna Sport CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta (left) and Dorna Sports Chief Sporting Director Carlos Ezpeleta (right) in Sarinah, Wednesday, October 19. (BUMN Doc)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir met with the CEO of Dorna Sport, Carmelo Ezpeleta, and Chief Sporting Director of Dorna Sports Carlos Ezpeleta in Sarinah, Wednesday, October 19, evening.

The meeting was to discuss Indonesia's preparations for welcoming the 2023 MotoGP.

Dorna Sports is the commercial rights holder for MotoGP.

The company is based in Madrid, Spain, and has branch offices of other subsidiaries spread across several major cities of the world such as Barcelona, ​​Rome, London to Tokyo.

"Today we have Carlos and Carmelo who manage Dorna, we talk about preparations for next year's MotoGP, October 15, where do we not make the event suddenly. At least they came here to make sure of our preparations like what," he said when met in Sarinah, Jakarta, quoted Thursday, October 20.

So what did Erick and Dorna's boss discuss?

Erick explained that during the meeting he had explained to Dorna that the supporting facilities for the 2023 MotoGP event had been opened.

One of them is lodging in this case the Pullman Hotel.

"I have said thank God the hotel is open, the soft opening is a total of 230 rooms as 5 facilities that didn't exist yesterday," said Erick.

Erick said that his party had also repaired the asphalt of the Pertamina Mandalika International Circuit.

According to Erick, the asphalt on the circuit was in the spotlight during the last MotoGP event.

"Of course, we are also consistent in making asphalt repairs, which at that time had become an issue," he said.

Reflecting on the implementation of MotoGP last year, said Erick, his party will also improve the parking area.

This is done to minimize congestion after the event is over.

"Yes, of course, last year's traffic jam problem, there was something we had to fix, one of which was the parking lot, if you remember. Same access from the parking lot to the MotoGP area. So this is what we will prepare for why (the preparation is done) one year in advance. This is an important note, yes," he said.

Erick said that the meeting also discussed preparations for the World Superbike Championship (WSBK) which will be held in November.

Erick intends to link the event with G20 activities.

"And we will also have a World Superbike this November, this has been decided by all of us to be a road to G20 because 11-12, that's World Superbike after that it will go directly to G20. So now we are trying to connect how can those in Bali come to Mandalika because it's a one week, it's all very busy," he said.

"So this is our opportunity to synergize several tourist destination points. Because it's impossible if we build these tourist points individually, it's impossible. If this can be one that continues with one another, this is a good thing," concluded Erick.