The famous American track at Red Bud will host the 2018 Motocross of Nations, and will be timed to avoid riders saying they are “too tired” to race there, according to GP supremo Guiseppe Luongo.

In an announcement at the Nations at Matterley Basin on Sunday morning, Luongo also said there would be no Mexican GP in 2018. Instead, the season would start in Argentina then there would be a double-header GP in Indonesia on two consecutive weekends. This would be on tracks that are 500km apart – one on an island and another on the mainland.

The championship will end at Imola in Italy, on a purpose-built track at the famous road race venue that used to hold motocross GPs in the 1950s. He said there would be a jump over the famous tarmac.

There will also be races at Red Sand in Spain and a new venue in Turkey. Luongo also revealed there would be “19 or 20” races next year. And that in 2019, the series would also go to China for the first time.

The announcement was met with dismay from several team bosses due to the huge costs of the fly-away GPs in times when many teams are finding it hard to continue. It seems Suzuki will be absent from MXGP and MX2 next year after the factory withdrew its support, Kawasaki is folding its MX2 squad as it has lost its Monster backing and HRC will run a slimmed-down team with Tim Gajser running out of the Gariboldi squad alongside HSF who will move to Honda.