Dorna places pressure on Phillip Island

British motorcycle weekly MCN is reporting that Phillip Island will be removed from the MotoGP calendar in 2012 unless it agrees to stage the event in March.

Carmelo Ezpelata, the CEO of Spanish-based MotoGP rights holder, told MCN: “It was clear that to move for next year was very complicated. We have spoken to them and for next year the calendar will be as the provisional one already printed.

“We understand because of the short notice but for 2012 it will be at the beginning of the season. It must be at the beginning of the year because I think it is too risky later in the season (because of fears about inclement and unpredictable weather conditions).

“For 2012 it will be compulsory and the FIM will not homologate the circuit unless the race is at the beginning of the year. There can be no excuses in 2012.”

Phillip Island has a contract to host the opening round of the world superbike title until 2012, most likely in late February, so the seaside circuit could potentially be hosting world championship action in successive months of that year – at least.

That shouldn’t pose such a massive logistical problem – Brno in the Czech Republic has faced the same compact schedule in recent years – but the bigger issue is that the promoter of the Phillip Island MotoGP, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC), also runs the Formula 1 race in March.

That would create major headaches for the government-funded statutory body, both in a logistical and monetary sense – at a time when the cost blowout of both events is being heavily scrutinised in the mainstream media.

The CEO of the AGPC, Andrew Westacott, has previously gone on record as saying that his organisation has a contract to run the MotoGP round in September/October until 2016.

Interestingly, the only world championship race to be cancelled at Phillip Island was the second world superbike race of 2011, which was washed out on April 22…