Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127936
ROAD RACE WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAJIPIONSHIP GUIDE The. Octagon takeover .... -Y' ..A..~_ ith the World Superbike Championship kicking off its new season in Australia, it has become apparent that a major restructuring of its operation has taken place in Europe over the past two months. And only now is the importance of that restructuring becoming clear. What is certain is that these developments will change the face of motorcycle road racing as we presently know it especially how we view it, on television. The catalyst for change is the formation of a new motors ports-management company by the London-based Octagon Co., which was founded in May of 1997 as the sports-marketing division of the multinational advertising conglomerate lnterpublic Group. Octagon chairman and chief executive officer Frank Lowe announced on January 23 that his company had established the new venture by acquiring the motorsports division of Italy's Flainmini Group - the Rome-based sports-management company headed by brothers Maurizio and Paolo Flammini that has operated the World Superbike Series for most of the '90s. Lowe also stated that the new Octagon subsidiary, in which the Flammini Group will hold a strong minority interest and of which Maurizio Flammini will be president, also holds a direct 50-percent slice of the SBK World Superbike Championship management company. This presumably leaves the Flammini Group and its associate Tommy Suharto (son of the Indonesian president), who has been a partner in the Italian company for three years, to share the remaining 50 percent - though this remains unconfirmed. . If this sounds like stock market shenanigans unworthy of motorcyclist interest, think again. This move holds significant importance for the future of toplevel motorcycle sport - and a look at the background of the parties involved confirms this. World Superbike's new owner Octagon is a wholly owned division of the New York-based Interpublic Group, one of the world's leading conglomerates of W . . . . ____ ~.~.~~. J~.~~ . These are the main participants in the World Superbike Championship. Factory riders ane marked with an asterisk. 2 4 5 6 7 S 9 10 11 12 15 39 41 44 45 111 Carl Fogarty" Akira Yanagawa" Neil Hodgson" Peter Goddard" Pier·Francesco Chili" James Whitham" Piergiorgio Bontempi Andnew Stroud Troy Corser" Stephen Bri99s Igor Jerman Alessandro Gramigni Noriyuki Haga" Scott Russell" Colin Edwards II" Aaron Slight" Britain Japan Britain Australia Italy Britain Italy New Zealand Australia New Zealand Slovakia Italy Japan United States United States New Zealand Ducati 996 Kawasaki ZXR7 Kawasaki ZXR7 Suzuki GSXR750R Ducati 996 Suzuki GSXR750R Kawasaki ZXR7 Kawasaki ZXR7 Ducati 996 Ducati 996 Kawasaki ZXR750R Ducati 996 Yamaha VZF750 Yamaha VZF7 50 Honda RC45 Honda RC45 The official calendar••• ...might look something like this. There are still doubts concerning the Sentul and Shah Alam races. The Brazilian round. scheduled for July 5. was recently canceled and may be replaced by a secqnd race in the United States; Brainerd and Road Atlanta are appanenly on the short list of possible venues. The World Supersport Series is run on the circuits marked with an asterisk. March 22 . . . . . . . . . .. . Phillip Island· Australia April 13 ...........•................................Donington Park" . Great Bntain May 10 ...........•..•......•..•......•..•... _ Monza" . Italy May 24 ............ . Albacete" . Spain June 7 .......••...... _.. . .....•..••.....•......... Nurburgring" . Germany June 21 .....•..•...•.........•.........•..... Misano"· San Marino July 5 TBA July 12 . . . . . . . . • . . .. ... ..•. . .. . .•. . . . .. Laguna Seca" . United States August 2 .•...•..•............ , . . .. .Brands Hatch" . Europe August 30 ............•................•..•..•.. . ..A·' Ring"· Austria September 6 ....................•...................Assen" . Holland September 27 . ...•.........•..•......SentulO . Indonesia October 4 . ...•......•......Sugo" . Japan October 11 Shah Alamo. Malaysia C:~t"c:a advertising and promotional companies. Established in 1961 by one of the top global advertising agencies, McCann-Erickson - which continues to form part of its corporate portfolio - Interpublic works as a one-stop shopping center for ad-related services. Operating in more than .100 countries and with a combined 1996 turnover of $2.538 billion, the activities of Interpublic's subsidiaries range from advertising of all types to public relations, market research, graphic design, artist management, TV and film production, and sports marketing. With a list of blue-chip clients ranging from Nestle, Mercedes Benz, Coca-Cola, General Motors and Fosters to Citibank and Unilever, and with a net income of $239. billion in 1997 (up 16.5 percent over 1996), lnterpublic is the largest advertising and communications-services company in the world. The fact that such a IDaSl;ive player in the media world should ha ve targeted the World Superbike Championship as its vehicle for getting involved in the burgeoning world of motorsports marketing can't be overstated. "This venture (with Flammini) launch7 es us into one of the most exciting alld . fastest-growing areas of sport," Lowe said when announcing the acquisition. "The Superbike World Championship is a textbook example of how to build up a global event, and we look forward to developing j ts curren t success." Lowe is familiar with such undertakings. The 55-year-old not only built the Lowe Group -advertising agency up from scratch to its present multimiI.\ion-dollar turnover, but almost as a sideline he also founded the pre-Wimbledon Queens Club tennis tournament in his native Britain (the event is now sponsored by Stella Artois) in 1978. Since then he has built the tournament to its current position as a leading international event on the tennis calendar. . Proof that Octagon means business has been demonstrated by the speed with which it has taken steps to achieve a dom- The honor roll The World Superbike Championship has crowned seven different champions in its first decade. The United States leads the way with four different riders topping the field. with a total of six championships. France. Australia and Britain each have one rider who has topped the fiekI when the points wene tallied, with Britain the only double winner. Ducati has had by far the most success in the championship, with six titles to its credit. Honda comes next with three over the last decade, and Kawasaki has one. 1988-89 1990 1991·92 1993 1994-95 1996 1997 ... _ Fred Merkel Raymond Roche Doug Polen Scott Russell Carl Fogarty Troy Corser John Kocinski Honda Ducati Ducati Kawasaki Ducati Ducati Honda ~~.P.~.~P.~.~~ United States France United States United States Britain Australia United States __ __ . _ This year the Superpole formula has been introduced to the World Superbike championship. From now on, pole position is no .Ionger the trophy of the man who made the fastest lap time dunng the two official qualifying sessions. After the two untimed and the two timed practices, the 16 fastest riders hit the track again, one at a time, for a single flying lap, just as is done for the Suzuka 8 Hours. On the basis of these lap times, the final grid positions are defined. Not all riders are happy with the new formula. Michelin users fear the supremacy of the Dunlop riders. who have a longtime experience with very soft qualifiers. But we would be very surprised if Michelin did not develop an even softer tire than the tires it is using now. Officially, the French tire giant says it doesn't have qualifying tires in its trucks. Despite the controversy:the Superpole session promises a lot of drama because thane's so much at stake; The fastest man in the sessions leading up to Superpole could drop back to a fourth-row start if things don't go quite as well during his do-or·die lap· not a very good prospect for race day. If only Giancarlo Falappa were still riding a factory Ducati...