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/128161
Laguna Secas World Superbike Weekend 'T'fie VVor(d tAccordinB 'T'o ~C?[£)jjl]:$C -) BY GORDON RITCHIE you @hances arepeople may be one of the many laboring under the strain of a few misconceptions about the World Superbike Championship; it's past, present and future. Well, it's understandable if you are because few of the people involved in the series full-time show a uniformity of opinion about where it's going, or even why it's been where it's been in the last few years. The past and future we'll get to in a minute, but the present is easily summed up. On the surface, anyway. Troy Bayliss (you remember him from his whistle-stop AMA tour in the very early days of the 2000 season) and Colin Edwards (tall guy, Texan, yet another American World Champion) are dueling it out around the 16 JULY 3,2002' cue I III Last year, Ben Bostrom was in the middle of a five-race winning streak when he rolled into Laguna Seca. He dominated both races in front of the partisan U.S. crowd. racetracks of the world on their big V-twins. Deadlines being what they are, this particular stampede through the English language was completed before the World Superbike circus screeched to a halt outside the Adriatic Rivera town of Misano, for round eight of the 13-round series, the 15th and 16th races of the year. But, prior to the sun-soaked pleasures of a weekend of ocular and aural therapy for the Italian motorheads, the math was easy enough. Bayliss, the reigning champ, had won 11 of the 14 races, never been n ...... s lower than fifth, and finished 'em all yet only led Edwards and his Castrol Honda VTR by 39 points. (With 300 points still to be dished out, his position looks less secure than the stats would have you believe.) Edwards, for his part, has enjoyed his richest-ever seam of World Superbike form, only off the podium once (and only just, in fourth at Valencia) the winner of two races, a finisher in them all - and is thus still within slapping distance of Bayliss' butt. There's never really been a year like it, because Bayliss should really be swimming in a three-race win buffer with a winning average like his, but Edwards, despite suffering from _ an un-Honda-like small top-endspeed disadvantage, has been the most determined bloodhound in World Superbike's 15-season history. The rest are nowhere. I'm not being unkind, but the closest challenger, Neil Hodgson (recently confirmed as a full factory Ducati runner in 2003, rather than a privateer with year-old tackle like he is now), was over 106 points behind Edwards, never mind a trifling 145 behind Bayliss on the eve of Misano. So, how come only these two guys are creaming it? How come the fours are nowhere, when they are at least capable of winning (Nicky and Miguel allowing, of course) in AMA races? How come Ben Bostrom's only fighting for third after last year's superb run of wins? Well, Bayliss and Edwards did a lot of maturing, testing, machine development and, most of all, serious focusing on the job at-hand over the winter. They both attacked the first pointsscoring opportunities with relish. They both know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and worked on negating their own. The best riders just got better quite a bit better. Bayliss' bike, the 998F02, also went through a serious engine revamp after his title-winning season, and of the three full-factory Ducati men (the man himself, Ben Bostrom and Ruben Xaus), he has got on best with the changes in the Ducati's revier nature, due to yet another increase in bore. He also appears to have the fastest single bike of them all, but don't mention that to Ducati Corse's three-rider team boss Davide Tardozzi, because he won't agree. Edwards' bike has been altered significantly in the chassis area, but basically retuned, not tuned-up in the engine department. A cross to bear, but he's bearing it well so far. The challenge for the World Championship has almost invariably been between the best of the Japanese bikes and the best Ducati, and this particular year is proving the rule, not the exception. Honda and Ducati have put the most into their 2002 seasons, and they are reaping the benefits. Boiling it down to generalities, Honda, the biggest builder of engines in the world (of all kinds, period) have had the resources to do it. Ducati, with one design philosophy, one V-shaped line drawn from track to street, and which just so happens to have no small bikes or scooters to underwrite its corporate profits, simply has to produce winning Superbikes to keep desire for their aging 916-derived units at a high level. Especially during its ninth year of evolution. (Hence Ducati's recent about-face on getting out of World Superbike with a factory team, per se, to concentrate on the MotoGP four-cylinder machine). The fact that Honda and Ducati have both entered something of a two-cylinder arms race ever since the VTRlOOOSPW was launched in 2000 has left every other manufacturer gasping in their wake. Even Aprilia, the only other competitive big V-twin factory in World Superbike racing, has been caught napping, with only one rider, so-so reliability and, dare we say it out loud, maybe the wrong tires on the beautiful metallic OZwheel rims. Those riders who have enjoyed race wins at Laguna Seca on Dunlop tires - the vast majority of winners in recent years - may find this difficult to imagine, but Michelin has gotten really serious this season. Last year, they got their corporate butt kicked at Sugo, Laguna, Brands Hatch, and Donington - too many places for the French-based manufacturer to accept without a backlash this season. With some manpower and expertise freed up after their recent new forays into the intensive Formula One series, lots of new ideas thanks to the MotoGP four-stroke requirements, and with more demanded of them by \