P52
PREVIEW
2013 WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
BMW's Marco Melandri probably
should have won the title last year,
but non-finishes in five of the last six
races proved to be his undoing.
manufacturers would make World
Superbike even more irresistible
a spectacle than it is already.
Because any championship
that ended 2012 with just a halfpoint gap between the top two
Jonathan Rea will ride the
Pata Honda again in 2013
in what will likely be the last
season with the CBR1000RR.
riders after 27 thrilling races that
saw nine individual winners, with
five different makes of bikes filling the top five places in the final points table, epitomizes the
essence of world-class Super-
bike racing. Lots of different riders from many different nations,
aboard a variety of different
makes and different types of motorcycles, each with a chance of
victory – that's what it's all about.
So the only thing that's certain
about World Superbike 2013 is
that we'll likely see another thrilling season whose outcome is
hard to forecast – especially with
the added uncertainty of the new
17-inch tires, introduced together
with cosmetic stick-on 'headlights' as two contrasting means
of bringing World Superbike
closer to its roots.
