Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

EURO FILE BYALANC T A HCART WorldS upers: perfect 10? World Superbike's 10th birthday has been marked by the publicatio n of the definitive hi s tory of four-s troke ra cin g's premier class, ca lled - appropriately - "World Superbikes - The First Ten Years." Written by Ju lian Ryder - for ma ny acro ss the English-speaking world, the voice of Su perbike racing tha nks to his Sky Spo rts com me ntaries carried Down Und er as well as Up Over in Europe and illu stra ted by Kel Edge, the only photogr apher to have attended every si n g le SBK rou n d si n ce the s e ri es kicked off at Donin gt on Park in April 1988, this is '! la vishly illustrated, sof t-cov er histo ry of Superbike racing, covering th e spor t fro m it s early b eginni ngs in Am erica th rou gh to the prese n t day. Readable and entertaining , the text hits the hig hlig ht s of each season in Ryd er' s punc hy sty le, w hile th e Edge photo archives yield n<;'t only a.series of br eath taking action sho ts - his pho to of Falappa learung on his teammate Roche as they Duke it ou t for victory at Jere z in 1990 is worth the £12.99 cover pn ce alone - bu t a who le series of wo nderfully atmos pheric pa ddock pics from d own the years. Complete wi th a comprehensive resu lts sectio n detailing the 15 points scorers in eve ry race, this is a marv elous refe rence volume as we ll as a dam good read . But it ma~es you realize one thing: Apa rt from the consis ten tly close-q uarter compe tition (twice per day, what's more), no road racin g class in the past 30 years has pr oduced such an awesome arr ay of well-defined personalities as World Super bike; if yo u were a ,Ho lly w ood p roducer wantm g to ma ke a movie ab out bike racin g, yo u wouldn t ~a ve to look furt her than the World Su perbike paddock for the ma kings of a cas t I.I~t. Roche, Merkel, Phillis, Mert ens, Pirovano, Russell, Falap pa, Fogarty, Po~en , Ch ili, Gobert, Slight, Haga - every one a race win ner, every one his ow n man. ThIS book tells you why. Buy it. (Published by Hayn es: ISBN 1 85960 404 8). TV O ...N D ever! 4 So - it' s war, then. After successive season s of in cr ea singly ea rn es t s hadow boxi ng, th e standoff between the East and West of World Championship road racing is abou t to ge t serio us, pitting the esta blished tw o-stroke Grand Prix circus against the blossoming Wor ld Superbike four- stroke seri es, on terrain wh er e the ou tcom e rea lly matters - well, as far as th e g u ys wh o si g n th e s p o ns o rs h ip checks are concerned, at least : on the TV scree n. How come ? Well , so far th e World Superbike series has been a bit like tha t favorite bar or restaurant you discover, whose repu te is a wo rd-of-mo u th thing: On ly in those cou ntries like Grea t Britain (than ks to Sky Sports' award-winni ng coverag e of every race), or Germany and Austria , which cover it on a Pay-TV basi s, ha s th e th ri ll ing specta cle th a t Wo rld Superbike d eliv ers been able to overtake 500cc GP ra cin g in ter ms of pu blic support - a fact und erlined by the 70,000 spectato rs who crowded in to Brand s Hatch this August for the World Superbik e r ound there, a cou pl e of weeks befo re a scant 25,OOO-Odd fans visited Doni ng ton Park for the British GP or the dec ision by the Zeltweg A-l Ring promotors to ditch the loss-taking Austrian GP in '98, in favor of concentrating all their efforts on their SBK rou nd . But with World Superbike races largely absent from TV screens in most European countries, as we ll as (perhaps surprisingl y) Ja pan, th e Dorna /IRTA GP cartel has been able to shrug off SBK as a viable threat to their supremacy, especially as regards their all-important sponsors. Until now. For in 1998 SBK will at last go h e ad t o hea d w it h GP ra ci n g o n Eu ros por t, the fr ee-to -vie w s atelli te channel which has pro vided viewers in all European co u ntries with full, live cove rage of every GP race (not only 500s, but 125s a nd 25 0s , too ) for th e pa st dec ad e, and which is the single biggest medium for the GP wo rld 's spo nso rship exposure in th ose markets, p ro vid in g coverage to more than 78 million hom es and 200 million vie wers in 46 differ ent countries. But from 1998 onward , a multi-year agree me nt between the Paris-based TV channel and the Flarnmin i-own ed Superbike Interna tional Ltd., promotors of the World Superbike series , will see every World Superbike and World Supersport race cov ered .live on Eu ros po rt, free of charge to an yon e with a sa telli te di sh , wi th commentary in up to 10 di fferen t lan gu ages - in ad d ition to Sky Sports' existing English-language Pay-TV cove rage, which the Murdo ch-owned company has confirm ed will conti nue. Says Eurosport mana ging director Emma nuel Florent: "We' re delighted to provid e ou r viewers with th is u niq u e co m p e ti tion, co n sidered o ne of th e worl d 's most spectacular and prestigious sport se ries . Thanks to this agreem en t, Eurospo rt is com mit ted to offe rin g the best worldwi de mot orcycling pa ckage that att racts a large, young, dynamic and upmarket au die nce." What this means is that not only will Eu ro pea n bike-racing fans have a ma ss ive extra dos e of th e be s t of twowh eeled road raci ng, a t no ad d itional cost, but for the first time Superbike and GP racin g will also be sha ring the same level playin g field in terms of TV expos u re , in th eir la rges t single ma rk et Eu ro pe. This mean s tha t a dvertis ers , spo nso rs and, abo ve all, manu facturers will now be able to make a direct comp a r is o n in terms of th eir return o n invest ment betwee n the two rival forms of top-level motorcycle sport, wit h. the all-important view ing figur es for each as the yardstick. Wit h SBK str uggling to att ra ct ou tside spo nso rs, the ad ded exposure that Eu ro sport's cove rag e will d eliver is a huge benefit - while for the GP world, we? ke ne d by the d eparture of Lucky Str ike fr om th e sc e ne, th e ch ips ar e d own. Ca n the 500cc GP class' tra diti onal sup remacy be main tained - especially a t a tim e w h e n Mick Doohan 's and H onda ' s d omination of the cla ss ha s w eaken ed it s app ea l - and w it h sta r nam es like Corser and Gobert returning to the SBK scene in '98, as well as former World Cha m p ions like Al essa ndro G ra m igni a n d perhaps a ls o Lu ca Cada lora makin g the transfer? We' ll see; bu t certain ly, come the end of the 1998 season, there are going to be so me crunc h d ecisions at th e highest level in business boardrooms all over the world - especially if the imposit ion of un lea ded fuel in GP racin g fo r 1998 allows SBK to again lap faster than 500cc GP bikes a t so me ci rc u its , a nd Jo h n .Kocinski' s return to two-stroke racin g d oesn 't de nt the Doohan d om inanc e. In the meantime, two-wheeled sports fan s all over Europe are the w in ners . Better stock up now on long-play videotapes.... But that's not all . Word coming out of Japan is that the World Superb ik e series will fina lly be shown in its ent irety on terresti al TV in 1998 - if not live (be ca use of the tim e di fferential wit h Europe), at least with only a brief dela y. With Yamaha whiz-kid Noriyuki Ha ga joining Kawasaki's Akira Yanagawa as a fu ll-time member of th e SBK circus in 1998, cha nces a re tha t, here too , th e World Superbike Cha m pions hip wi ll start to make an impact, as it begins its secon d d ecad e of co m p e tition as the o n ly tw o-whe el e d road ra cing cl a ss where all four Japa nese ma nufactu re rs are involved with factory teams, along . side Ducati. With Bimota scheduled to join in next s e a s o n, Ap rili a and MV Agust a / Cagiva and Laverda in 1999, Moto Guzzi and Tri umph and Benelli known to be working on future Superbike co ntend ers, and perhaps also Buell/Har leyDavidson and BMW and Ma rch taking part at a later date as well, SBK looks to be an increasing ly attractive option for manufactu rers, especially as the substantially increased TV coverage gives them the exira exposure they've been seeking for their street products - products closely related to the bikes viewers see on the race track. S uperbike gets Super Pole Eu r os po r t's SBK cover age w ill b e enriched by a page that th e Flam mini Group is taking ou t of the Formula One GP car-racing book: Satu rday qualifying FIM Congressgoes"exotic" dancing One c?ntroversial new technical rule for the Superbike class passed at the F1M Con gress in Octo ber has gone almost unnoticed , which is that so-called "exotic" (presu ma? ly mea ni ng "exJ?Cnsive ") metals such as beryllium (for the calipers) and even alu m iniu m (for . t ~ e dISCS) are hen ceforth forbidden for use in braking systems. These matenals Jom the ban ned carbon disc s, w hich were ou tlawe d for Superbikes three years ago . This i~ pres~mably ai~ed at ~ompanies such as Brembo (kno wn to be working on ultralightweight bery lhu m cahpers based on those fitted to Formula On e cars in th~ in teres ts of reducing .unsprung weight) or the many compan ies experim enting WIth metal-composit e dISC - usually alumi niu m-based, wit h a ceramic or other S co~ ting - in the in ter ests of achieving th e same kind of reduction in unsprung weight and reduced gyroscopic inertia that the now-outlawed "black bra kes" delivered . Given tha t th e objec tion to cos tly carbon brakes was not only main ly that of expense - the~ ~~ar out ~o fast, they ha,:,e to be constantly replaced - but that they canno t by de~mtion be fitted to street bik es and therefore have no place in a class based ( theorel1~a ll'y at least) on such machines, it' s hard to understand why the F1M ~hould have ehmma ted the metal-composite discs, which don't wea r ou t, deliver Imp:~ved handling and even braking to stree t bikes and , tho ugh they are not yet su fficiently develop ed for OE stree t use, wi ll surely appear on performance stree t bikes in the future. Quite apa rt from the fact tha t en forcing thi s regul ation will req ui re the se rv ice s of a m eta llurgist , as well as a legal eagle to wrap the rul e's wo rd ing up tight, it m akes nonsens e of th e notion tha t racing improves th e b re ed . Go sh - th e y'll · ban fu el in jection o n gro unds of cost and sophistication, next... Doug Polen on th e 1994 , RC45 - equipped wi th the now -banned carbon -fi ber brakes. After the 1994 season , the FIM bann ed carbo n-fiber brake dis cs . Now Its lookin g to expand the ban to "exotic" mate rials , to sto p th e possib le use of meta l-c omposi te rotors.

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