Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

banks which now control the company are understood to recognize the worth of going racing with the products MV actually builds to sell. With the launch now confirmed at the Milan Show next September of the 1000cc F4 Mille (no longer known as the F5) radial-valve four, whose engine has undergone extensive development in the hands of MV's satellite Belgian team in World Endurance this past season in which it finished 5th and 6th in gruelling 24hour races against the Japanese bikes, it stands to be competitive when raced in World Superbike in 2004 by the factory-supported Italian team who are in the frame to do so. While World Superbike's transitional year is likely to result in a similar imbalance in performance to what GP racing saw in 2002, it may not necessarily be the Ducati monomarca class that some predict - especially if Aprilia finds the budget to run the two-rider RSV1000 team they currently have penciled in to run as a full-factory effort in 2003 with Regis Laconi and Giovanni Bussei as riders, not a semidetached satellite squad, as was the single-rider effort this past season. The key to this is the recent announcement that World Superbike will be shown in 2003 onwards on a free-to-air basis by RAJ, Italy's equivalent of the BBC (which will continue to transmit World Superbike as its premier motor sports coverage, with three British riders in contention for victory and all the signs of the legendary Walker-Hodgson rivalry resurfacing). RAI's coverage - which replaces the bike GPs it used to show until last season - makes it more feasible for Aprilia to find a naming sponsor for its factory Superbike effort, and with company boss Ivano Beggio already on record as valuing the importance of Superbike racing commercially - Aprilia equaled Ducati's market share in the USA in 2001, its first full year of selling V-twins stateside on the back of becoming a regular winner in SBK - there's still a chance it'll be on the grid for 2003. If this happens (and the odds are that time will tell against it), it'd position Regis Laconi as a serious contender for title honors after his victory at Imola in his last Superbike race in October 2001, especially if the Italian company switches to Michelin tires for its Superbike team next season, as it has already done for MotoGP with Colin Edwards. At the moment, Laconi has signed only a letter of intent to ride for the privateer NCR Ducati team in 2003. The LOI is the same type of precontractual piece of paper that at one time had Colin Edwards defending his Superbike world title aboard a Ducati next season, rather than riding for Aprilia in MotoGP, or Nicky Hayden aboard a Yamaha rather than a Honda for his GP debut. But for 2004, Aprilia is certain to mount a big attack on the World Superbike class, with two star riders aboard its all-new RSV Mille, which has already been captured on film testing at Rijeka, almost certainly with the existing Superbike racer's ultra short-stroke motor (homologated via the single 150-off batch of RSV1000SP bikes built back in 1999) installed. Expect Aprilia to mount an attack on the AMA Superbike series with the new bike, as well, probably in 2005 after a year's worth of R&D at world level. For sure, the company which single-handedly props up the 250cc and even 125cc GP classes with its customer two-strokes Will, at long last, offer privateer Superbike equipment to customer teams, just as Ducati has done so profitably for many years. The presence of a Michelinequipped Aprilia team - if it happens - will certainly give Ducati's works riders Ruben Xaus and Neil Hodgson, aboard the new 999R, something to worry about in 2003, if they weren't already concerned about beating HM Plant's Chris Walker and James Toseland on last season's works 998R bikes or keeping Ducati's new AMA Superbike factory recruit Anthony Gobert from taking one of their seats in 20041 They'll also have to or Belgarda/Yamaha, etc.), the importance of winning aboard the latest and greatest showroom special will most undoubtedly concentrate factory minds on success in World Superbike. SBK race fans will therefore take that piece of MotoGP spin with a pinch of salt, since the main reason for the growth of this branch of the sport has been the quality of the racing, and provided there's variety and spectacle and full- blooded racebikes derived from those seen stacking the parking lot behind the racetrack (which the new 2004 World Superbike rules will engender), it's irrelevant whether these are run by full-on or semi-works teams. Means to an end. Same thing for the riders. The clearout at the top of World Superbike next season - Troy Corser will be the only former World Champion lining up on the grid - means there are up to a dozen seats with factory-supported Superbike teams up for grabs for 2004. This means 2003 will be the chance for rising stars like Chris Vermeulen and Karl Harris, as well as the products of the American rider factory, to make their marks and show why they deserve to go Superbike racing with a factory-supported ride on the world stage in 2004. We're set for a thrilling harvest of young guns sure to add extra zest to the revitalized World Superbike scene in 12 months' time - a fact which is going to make World Supersport, where many of these future stars are currently cutting their teeth, even more of an exciting spectacle in 2003. That's before taking into account the four completely new bikes which will be lining up for World Supersport 2003 alongside the sole carryover in the form of the GSX-R600 Suzuki three from Japan and one from Britain. Yes, that's right - Triumph is finally going racing again in 2003, for the first time in born-again form, with the factory-supported Valmoto team and the new 600 Daytona. Company owner John Bloor has already stated on record that Triumph is developing an all-new 1000cc Superbike (probably a four-cylinder, rather than an uprated Daytona triple), which is likely to hit the showrooms, and the race tracks, in 2005/6. And that's the key to this whole issue: excitement. Motorcycle racing is a spectator sport, bought and paid for by the fans who watch it, via the entry pass they purchase at the gate or the products bought as a result of the commercial advertising that puts it on TV. We live in an era our fathers could only have dreamed of, when we have two distinctly different forms of bike racing; each has the capacity to thrill and excite, in different ways and for different reasons, and gives us a different kind of two-wheeled specta- cope with NCR's new hotshot Simone Sanna on a similar Ducati to HM Plant (the ex-125cc GP rider was immediately on the pace in Misano testing, matching Regis Laconi's time aboard the same machine on the very first occasion he'd even sat on a fourstroke racebike!) and new contenders Troy Corser and James Haydon on the Foggy-Petronas FP-l triples. All these are lined up to return in 2004, by which time Sanna & Co. and the HM Plant guys will all be equipped with 999R machinery, albeit now fitted with restrictors. Ducati's numerical dominance of World Superbike grids is likely to end in 2004 - maybe another reason the Italian firm whose model range is so strongly spun off from racing success started focusing on developing a future four-cylinder Superbike contender via the handy R&D arena of MotoGP. Another firm taking the same route is Austria's KTM, which will enter MotoGP in 2005 with its 75-degree V4 currently under development. According to company boss Stefan Pierer, KTM will develop a range of four-cylinder Superbikes for 2007 onward based on the GP racer. But before that, KTM is working on producing a V -twin sportbike powered by a tuned form of its very compact LC8 75-degree Vtwin Paris-Dakar winning engine, set to debut at the Milan Show next September. Though Pierer is on record as stating that KTM itself will not enter Superbike racing with the V-twin, that's not to say its customer teams won't do so with factory support which is already KTM's modus operandi in off-road competition. This raises the interesting topic of whether World Superbike is going to be devalued on the grounds that the majority of teams will be at best semi-works squads, leaving the factories to focus their in-house race efforts on MotoGP. Well, quite apart from the fact that teams like Corona Suzuki have traditionally been delegated to run full factory equipment in World Superbike (think Rumi/Honda in the old days, or Muzzy/Kawasaki II: y II: • e ce' with different bikes and different riders, each week. The smart thing might be just to sit back and enjoy it. eN n e _ os • JANUARY 22. 2003 25

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