The Air Race World Championship has announced that they shall be touching down in Jakarta, Bali and Lake Toba over the next three years – the first venues to be confirmed by organisers.
Hosting the Air Race for the 2022 season will be the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. Organisers hope that the race will draw crowds of over a million spectators over the race weekend, which will run from the 14th-16th October.
In 2023, the sport will head to the popular holiday island of Bali, while in 2024, aircraft will race in the skies above Lake Toba, a lake in the caldera of an extinct supervolcano in North Sumatra.
Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan commented: “I am delighted to support the initiative taken by the City of Jakarta by announcing the Air Race World Championships which will be initially coming to Jakarta-Indonesia in 2022. With Air Races scheduled for Bali in 2023 and Lake Toba in 2024, this is a major global sporting event which can be enjoyed by Indonesians across the country.”
The three races were announced as part of a three-year deal with Java-based sports and events agency PT Pilar Pacu Perkasa. Fittingly, given it will be the first time the air race has been staged in Indonesia, it is also the first host nation to be officially confirmed for the 2022 season.
Jakarta will be part of a six-stop worldwide series in 2022, with an increasing number of races expcted to be held in future years. The remaining race venues will be announced in the coming weeks. To find out more about the Air Race World Championship, read our exclusive interview with series director Willie Cruickshank from March 2021.