VOL. 55 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 28, 2018 P107
point. I think it was rolled out poor[ly].
That discouraged a lot of people I
think, including us. But we've just kept
working on it daily.
"What we always told all the manu-
facturers was we were going to balance
the class. Not to the lowest denomina-
tor, but we just didn't want somebody to
have a big advantage. We were trying to make it to
where they could all be competitive, and we wanted
the riders to make the difference, not how they set
the bike up. That's what we were shooting for. It
sounds easy on paper, but it was very difficult."
MotoAmerica Technical Director James Morse
has been the man charged with implementing the
various balancing changes throughout the year, go-
ing back and forth with FIM SBK Technical Director
and architect of the current Supersport 300 rules,
Scott Smart. He admits the process of balancing
has been fraught with difficulties, creating
a situation where it's impossible to keep
everyone happy. In short, the balancing
is achieved via changing the motorcycle's
rev limit via the supplied, password-locked
HM Quickshifter and the motorcycle's
weight, and in the case of the Yamaha, al-
lowing for airbox modifications, but there's
more to it than that.
"Our rules are different now to what they run
in Europe," starts Morse. "Last year in Europe,
Kawasaki had the 300, Yamaha had their R3 and
KTM had their 390. You also had Honda with their
CBR500R. It was very successful. So, we were
like, 'that's a good plan. Let's do that.' We followed
their rules, although we made a small exception in
allowing our ECUs to be flashed here within certain
parameters for stuff like removing the fuel cut and
speed limiters.
Ashton Yates is one
of the bigger guys
not just on the Junior
Cup grid, but the
entire MotoAmerica
paddock. The lack of
a combined weight
would affect him
more than most.
