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/128222
Another Look At World Superbike disappointed if American Honda does not let him have the opportunity he wants and deserves on the RC5]. Likewise, American (and Canadian) fans would love to see Daytona win- Twenty-two-year-old James Toseland (pictured) and teammate Chris "Stalker" Walker ride last year's spec 998 F02 Dukes with the same Testastretta engines that Bayliss and Xaus used last year. Toseland broke Hodgson's winning streak at Oschersleben. bikes work for all series, national and world, will mean that top national stars will be able to roll out onto a level playing field as wild card riders when the World Superbike show comes to town. We can even have match races again! But it is vital that the FIM and the World Superbike rights holders make all the' right decisions this fall in the drafting of the definitive rules. President Zerbi has said that he will be looking to the AMA and British Championships as guides. This has to mean that the restrictor plate rule will be scrapped and that the future of World Superbike will follow the lines of the current AMA and British nationals, with four-cylinder, ] OOOcc machines running under rules closer to current World Supersport 600cc rules than to the present World Superbike rules. The successes of Mat Mladin and Aaron Yates in the United States, John Reynolds (who finally beat the DU.catis last weekend in Brands Hatch) and Yukio Kagayama in Britain and of Gregorio Lavilla in World Superbike, all using the GSXR] 000 Suzuki in various states of tune, indicate that that four cylinder ] OOOcc bikes are the way to go and the way the Japanese factories want to go. Lavilla is running a fully prepared World Superbike engine fitted with 32.5mm restrictors, while the U.S. and UK Suzukis are running big original specification throttle bodies but with less freedom to vary from production moving components. Yet the British Rizla Suzuki team, running mildly tuned and unrestricted GSX-R ] 000 engines, reports that adding the restrictor plates did not decrease the output to any significant degree. That means that four-cylinder ] OOOcc without inlet restrictors and 36 .JULY 9,2003' cue I e tuned to Supersport specs are a theoretical match for this year's Ducati 999s built to current Superbike limits. This rings true because, in spite of the Italian factory's impressive run, Ducati is being pushed to the limit on faster tracks by Lavilla's Suzuki with full Superbike preparation, even with 32.5 mm restrictors. For Ducati the prospect of having its inlet tracts obstructed with 50mm restrictors in 2004 when they are already virtually level pegging with the Suzuki is worrying. The trick will be to find the balance for 2004 that lets ] OOOcc twins run with ] OOOcc fours. (There was a big meeting precisely about that last weekend at Misano, and we await word of the outcome.) If they get it right, and they'd better this time, World Superbike will become exactly what it was always intended to be, the ultimate production-based championship and the arena where the world's best graduates of national Superbike Championships battle for the world title and where the MotoGP teams look first for polished talent, although some riders will still move directly from national level to MotoGP, as John Hopkins and Nicky Hayden and, apparently, Ryuichi Kiyonari, have seamlessly done. And, speaking of talent, it will be very interesting to see how the American wild card riders perform at Laguna Seca this year. [n Japan, Hitoyasu lzutsu (Honda) and Atushi Watanabe (Suzuki) ran well but were outclassed by the World Superbike stars. Pier-Francesco Chili is a 39-year-old veteran who pays to race and loves it. He's running his own team this year but hoping for a works ride with anybody who wants him in 2004. He's riding as hard now as he did as a rookie on a 500cc GP bike back in 1986. neVIl's At Silverstone (GB),.locals John Reynolds, Yukio Kagayama (on Suzuki GSX-R 1000s) and Michael Rutter and Sean Emmet (on Ducati 998s) put up a brave fight but were unable to hang with the series regulars over full race distance, although Kagayama's two fierce fifth places were enough to earn him a chance to ride as a replacement for the injured Kenny Roberts Jr. on the MotoGP Suzuki V-four at Assen. Now it will be America's turn with wild cards Mat Mladin, Aaron Yates and Eric Bostrom, a strong threesome. But the fans deserve even more. It's not too late for American Honda to have a change of heart and roll out its factory RC5] s. Every other country in the world brings out its very best riders and machines to take on the likes of Hodgson, Xaus, Lavilla, Toseland, Chris Walker, Regis Laconi, Troy Corser and Chili, and the United States should be no exception. Ben Bostrom is a muchrespected rider with a strong European fan base, and Superbike TV viewers all around the world will be ner Miguel DuHamel and Kurtis Roberts on their factory Honda twins. The American wild cards will, however, have to make some adjustments to their bikes to comply with World Superbike rules. The American Suzukis should be at least as good as their British and Japanese counterparts, which were certainly competitive, but Eric Bostrom will have to make the most of circuit knowledge and skill to get the Kawasaki ZX-7RR on the World Superbike pace. One thing I can assure you of is that, regardless of appearances in MotoGP where Dunlop is joined at the hip with a lagging Kawasaki, in World Superbike there no longer seems to be any appreciable Michelin advantage, and that should make for great racing at Laguna, providing a level playing field for the American wild card riders out to display their talent to prospective World Superbike employers. And just because Ducati is dominating doesn't make the racing any less fierce this year. Some tracks tend to produce great racing, and like Misano and Philip Island, Laguna Sec a almost always does. And if American Honda doesn't roll out the RC5] s, we'll just have to compare lap times to see who has the fastest Superbike riders, the AMA or the FIM, though I suspect that the fastest American riders will be on GSXR1000s. World Superbike may not have the glitz and the exclusivity of closedpaddock MotoGP racing, but it is a great show with a great cast and certainly the very best racing American fans can see without showing their passports. If the championship can learn to accept its role and forget about trying to outperform MotoGP prototypes and if the FIM gets the rules right, then surely World Superbike is going to rise again. eN