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/128132
RC211Vs and MIs? Probably not in the short term. Costs and dwindling grids have already driven many of these domestic championships to include 1000cc fours, so what chance of national teams securing sponsors enough to buy GP exotica? Superbikes, especially cheaper but equally competitive ones like those proposed in the regulations, are therefore still the answer. The other factor that may seriously alter the fate of World Superbike racing is the ownership of the competing World Championship series. Dorna has been tasked by its ultimate owners to fatten MotoGP up for the stocks and shares pot. Octagon has invested money and effort into their own baby, the World Superbike Championship, and will be unwilling to allow anything to threaten its health - so they could still conceivably buy Dorna and MotoGP outright. The post-September 11 global financial situation allowing, of course. The ultimate future of World Superbike racing is, therefore, still not clear, but at least now it does appear to have a future, especially if the MotoGP experiment turns out to be less successful than hoped. Maybe the World Superbike move back to restricted cost racing, with scope for more entrants from existing bike manufacturers, all with a vested interest, is actually a smart move. After all, in the long term, will all the manufacturers continue in the most expensive bike racing series (MotoGP) if they get their corporate asses handed to them every year by Honda or whoever? They have pulled out for this very reason in the past, and even Honda might do it, either after proving its point by winning it or because they don't win it. It has happened in the past. Maybe a less expensive, more evenly matched form of racing, using products the fans can actually buy, would be more attractive for all the bike producing concerns - even if World Superbike racing never moves out of the second division status it appears to have in many markets of the world. The sands are shifting for sure, but in global bike racing the winds have a habit of being playful in their direction and ferocity. Five years ago, noone could have foreseen all the initiatives and alterations that are about to grip the sport in 2002, and at that time the four-stroke GP idea was being rubbished by everyone from the top team managers to guys in the bar. So even over a shorter two-year span, anyone who can tell you how things are going to work out exactly for World Superbike is either psychic or psycho. Or in a truncated form, the only permanence in any form of bike racing appears to be change. eN .-----------------------------------------------~~!~!~ YES! Start my subscription imme-- diately to Cycle ews. 1 year/50 issues for $t5.00. (can be billed 2 monthly payments) o Name Every week for two years (100 issues for 580.(0) Six months second class (25 issues for $23.(0) Address City _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ State _ _ Zip _ This is a o Phone ___________ Order Date o o o Send to: ~ I!JlIIIII , Inc. po. Box 5084. Costa Mesa, CA 92628-5084 Please bill me 1 payment of $45.00 Bill 2 payments of $22.50 Enclosed is my check or money Toll Free Subscription Hotline (800) 831-2220 order 24-hour FAX Order Line (714) 751-6685 • E-mail: Subscribe@cyclenews.com Signature New Subscription Renewal Cholrge my One yeilr (SO I MC/Visa# Expiration Date I Visa o _ 0 Mastercard = VISA 0(5), 2nd dass Cana,J. or MeXICO :"S6a~~~~~tesCO:v':~:I=(:;:::,~I.llIt ._------------------------------------------------~n e _ os • NOVEMBER 28,2001 19 cue I e