Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

race in second. He actually dropped to fifth after avoiding Toseland and had to fight back to second place, a task he found difficult for a time. "I got slowed by James' crash, and that wasn't any fun," Hodgson said. In a press conference on Friday at Laguna Seca, the Flammini brothers, Maurizio and Paolo, explained their views to an expectant world, and Paolo, the CEO of SBK, was questioned on specifics the day after. To start the conference Maurizio stated, 'Superbike is the dass in which we really have to have fair conditions. We would like to have the teams compete with the same possibility to win. Three or four years ago we did not have the three or four riders like today that can win; we had ten or twelve. Even 14 in one second. We like what Michelin, Dunlop and Pirelli are doing now; they are doing a very good job. But unfortunately there are very different race performances caused by the performances of the tires. Not so much the performances of the motorcyde or the rider, but of the tires. So we think that it is very important for us to balance this performance of tires. Therefore we are going to study and find a way to decide very soon which manufacturer will be the provider of spec tire for everybody. This is for sure: When asked about the cost implications and sponsorship deals teams have in place, Maurizio continued, "First of all I can say we will solve a big problem for the medium-level and lower-level teams. Medium-level and low-level teams spend a lot of money to have tires, and they will spend a lot less. This is for sure - this is not something that will be dumped. We know exactly how much they spend, and we can tell you that the teams will spend, overall in general, 50-percent less: There is a slight naw in this theory, which is obvious to all. For at least two of the teams in World Superbike this does nat apply, however. The PSG-1 team of PierFrancesco Chili has a deal where he gets tires free up to a certain limit, and the likes of GSE have a free tire deal and technical backup from Dunlop in any case. Maurizio Flammini continued an the theme of tires, stating, "I agree that Michelin, Pirelli and Dunlop have done a good job, but some of them have supported only one team. We have asked for a lang time for them to supply tires to ather teams - because it is not fair for them to supply just one team or a second team and then no one else. The other situation is that other teams were not allowed to have the most competitive tires from their supplier." Maurizio, warming to the task, continued, "Today there are many teams we are in contact with who would love to participate in the championship. If you have an engine that is 20bhp better than the others, you can have two or three tenths per lap. If you have a tire that is better than the other, you can make one second per lap. So if you don't have the tire, you cannot win." Wild cards were another issue th.at Maurizio addressed and acknowledged that they have some sort of problem with: "I recognize that the wild card issue could be a problem. We like to have wild card riders. We like it very much, but it is not the most important thing for the championship. The most important thing is that we want to have two rows of the grid with competitive bikes on competitive tires. As far as Supersport and Superstock are concerned, it is not decided yet, but it appears that there will be spec tires for everybody." Paolo FJammini answered a question regarding the new technical rules with the statement that "We will not have any more air restrictors as a performance-controlling tool. The target is to have less-tuned engines to keep costs dawn. The problem with air restrictors is. in order to keep performance, you have to tune the engine in a very sophisticated way, and this makes it very expensive. The way forward is that we will not limit the air into the engine, so you do not need the same level of tuning input to get the power, and this limits the cost: Maurizio FJammini was asked why the MSMA was obviously angry with FGSport, and his reply was at first mystifying and then unequivocal: "We have been managing this championship since 1989, and thanks to the media, the riders, the public, the championship grew and became very important. This has happened because of a good and very real atmosphere that we have in World Superbike. This is very important. We have thousands and thousands of fans and riders who can touch the riders and touch the bikes, and really they go back and say to their friends, 'I shook hands with the champion.' "I can understand that the manufacturers are upset, but we have worked with the manufacturers for many years to get these regulations, and this new regulation was approved on 30 September, 2001. The manufacturers made an agreement that they would not leave the championship for three years, until the end of 2004. "We accepted the restrictor regulations at that time because of the promise of the manufacturers. After that they started to study and develop something, and we understood that there were a number of problems with restrictors. the first being the costs. The air restrictor part of the regulation is not the most important part, but it implies full freedom inside the engine, which you can make very sophisticated, produce a lot of power, and yet then you limit the engine by a restrictor. We thought it was a little bit strange. but we accepted it. The manufacturers said they would produce the bikes for an affordable cast and for three years. "In the last meeting with the MSMA, they said they could only guarantee one more manufacturer from the Japanese factories. At the end of the job we have organized a championship that must guarantee - to the public, to the FIM - a good race series. We could not do that with only one or two manufacturer teams. "Because of this problem we did research, and we found out that the problems were three. First that the motorcydes were not available; some bikes would eventually be available for a huge price, and thus the World Superbike Championship would not be possible in these circumstances. First we spoke with the manufacturers and National Federations that organize - or can organize - SBK races. We very quickly realized that we could organize an agreement that is based on having motorcydes available at an affordable price and that can be very competitive. "To give you some ideas of the technical regulation, they will be something in the middle of the AMA and UK ones. Something that will not be too sophisticated, especially for the four-cylinder bikes, and these will have quite a stock regulation. Fours will really not be expensive. Ducati has already demonstrated to have affordable prices; if you see the grid today, you have 14 or 15 Ducatis, which for the privateers are affordable. "We are very happy about the way Ducati is handling Superbike, with a top team, but also giving the possibility to have private bikes which can live in this championship at an affordable price. The three-cylinder, for the first year, will be like the twin cylinders." Tellingly, Maurizio Flammini returned to the subject of tires under questioning. "Maybe this is a signal for everybody, so maybe Dunlop will come finally to discuss; Michelin will finally come to speak. Now they may come and say that 'maybe we will make something different for the dass.'" "It was a real crazy race. The first lap gravel. I re-joined second, but I was everyone nearly crashed, and Frankie all in a fuss after that for a bit and got [Chili] did the big somersault, and passed by three riders. Everyone was then it was a bit weird really. James riding really well and braking very fell right in front, and I made the clas- late. So it was a bit dangerous to get sic mistake of looking at the bike of past. I didn't get the chance to ride rider, and then I got pushed into the cycle my race tire until the morning warm- n e _ s JULY 23, 2003 11

• Cover