Australian Superbike title contenders Glenn Allerton, Robbie Bugden and Wayne Maxwell do battle at the recent Sydney round. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

A decision on the future of the Australian Superbike Championship and Australian FX-Superbike Championship series could be made as soon as next week, as speculation of the two premier national series merging continues to rise.

Motorcycling Australia (MA) CEO David White has confirmed to CycleOnline.com.au that MA intends to decide the ASBK’s future at a board meeting to be held in Melbourne next Wednesday, 21 August.

“We’ve had some good discussions and obviously with all of these things there are matters that have got to be worked through,” White explained to CycleOnline.com.au this afternoon. “The board will be making a final decision on it next week.”

Australian Road and Track Rider Promotions (ARTRP), which runs the FX-Superbike series, managing director Terry O’Neill also confirmed that a merger is currently being discussed for 2014 and beyond. He was present during Saturday’s proceedings at the recent Sydney Motorsport Park ASBK event.

“Since April the ARTRP board has been in ongoing negotiations with representatives of MA regarding the potential of there being one combined Australian championship series from 2014 on,” O’Neill told CycleOnline.com.au.

“Given the path the negotiations have taken to date and what has been agreed upon we expect a positive outcome soon, but at this stage are waiting for MA to finalise its position.”

ARTRP is a five-way joint venture consisting of partners Winton Raceway, Wakefield Park Raceway, the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club (ARDC), AVE TV and the Australasian Superbike Company (AUSCO).

O’Neill successfully ran the Formula Xtreme series on a national level in the 1990s and early 2000s, before he promoted the official Australian Superbike Championship under AUSCO from 2004 through 2008.

Yarrive Konsky’s International Entertainment Group (IEG) took control of the ASBK series in 2009, while O’Neill returned to hosting his own series under the guise of FX-Superbike.

In 2009 the FX series was permitted under MA, before it gained Australian championship status in 2010 when ARTRP was formed upon switching to the Australian Auto Sport Alliance (AASA) governing body.

Could we see the likes of FX front-runners Broc Parkes and Kevin Curtain do battle with the best of the ASBK regulars in 2014? Image: Keith Muir.

Since then, national level road racing has largely been divided as both series have struggled for supremacy despite ultimately featuring different formats and series structures.

MA’s stance on the subject recently became clear upon publishing its Annual General Meeting Report from 2012.

“The Australian Superbike Championship continues to be impacted by a rival series, the downturn in the motorcycle industry as well as suffering from a lack of venues (specifically NSW),” the report states.

“These factors, together with the difficulty and cost of hiring venues, make promotion and management of the series extremely difficult. Road racing is expensive to promote and traditionally road racing, at the elite level, suffers from lower participation numbers and high participation costs.

“This country cannot afford the luxury of two competing series. Road racing is probably suffering in most countries – the exception being the UK.”

Previously, ARTRP had stated that it had been in discussions for a potential merger for season 2012 before MA decided to continue running the ASBK separately.

An intended structure or finer details of the negotiated merger were not available at time of publishing.