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/128239
Ste"e Whitelock TIle man behind rhe lIIIorld SuperlJike land AMlt's1) rules oplains IIowand wIJ. ยท1 By A L A N C A T HCART P HOT OS BY K E L E DGE he current turmoil surroun ding the World Sup erbik e Ch ampion ship ce nte rs aro und two co ntroversial new eleme nts introduced fo r th e forthcomi ng 20 04 series, eac h with the app roval of the FIM. On e is th e wor k of series promot ers FGSport , who ha ve esta blished a sing le -make tire rul e in conj unction with Pir ell i for both Wo rld Superbike and Wo rld Su p ers port. T h e other i s driven by the FIM in th e form of an overhaul of the Superbike technica l reg ula tions that essen tia lly date back to th e fou ndation of the series in 1988. In a series of interv iews with the key people involved in the championship, we're goi ng to explore the background of these cha nges - and especially how they're going to be im plem ent ed. T h e new 2004 World Superbi ke rules announced on October 4 by the FIM are aimed especially at creating a more equita ble balance bet ween th e twi n -cyli nd er bikes, which have dom i nated the class at world level fo r th e past six years, and th e new generation of 1000cc fou rs from the fou r Japanese manu facturers and MV Agusta . But , in add ition , as FIM pre s ident F r an c e sc o Zerbi stat ed at an FIM p ress c onfere nce in Gen eva on May 2 1: "We at th e F1M are determined to r es olv e t h e e x i st i n g discrepan cy bet w een Superbike regul ati ons on a wo rld wid e ba si s and to p ro v id e t he m eans fo r our nati on al fede rations to work togethe r with us t o establish a ha rmonized set of Superbike technical ru les, b ased on the ne w , simplified and less-ex pen sive framework we will establish for th e 2004 Wo rld Su perbike Ch am p ionsh ip . This will reduc e the cos ts to te ams and manufacturers in developing machines for this class and provid e for the long -t erm devel o p m ent o f the Superbike c atego r y worldw id e." Th is statem ent fro m the w o rld 's gov ern in g bod y , fo ll owed by one on July 9 from the FIM 's SBK commission annou ncing th at the contro versial restricto r rule p l anned to be in trodu ce d in 2 004 w ou l d no w be sc rapped in favo r of a new set of har monized regulati ons to be announced later in the year, provoke d an im m ediate disdainful respon se from the J apan ese-dominated MSMA manufactu rers' cartel, which had concei ve d the whol e re stricto r idea. On J ul y 10 , t he M SM A iss ued a stateme nt rej ect i ng thi s move , sta ting its in tention t o co llecti vely secede f r om t h e SBK commissi on (the m em b er s had refu sed to atte nd th e commissio n's meeting the day befor e, to discu ss the new harmonized rules) and t o individ ually boy cott the World Superbi k e Cha m pi on sh ip in future. Ho wever , g iven th at o ne of it s 18 NOVEMBER 5 , 2 003 ' cue I e n e members, Du c at i , wa s committed to a long -term sup port of th e series, as much for commercial rea sons as any thing else , this could only be taken at face val ue . A ll this places the Ameri can charged as the FIM 's SBK technical direct or with drafting the new World Superb ik e ru les on center stage. Fortunate ly , though. fo r all con cerned , 57-yea r-old San Francisco native Steve Wh itelock is a m an used to bei ng in the eye of the storm , havi ng worked both si des of the st reet during a 3 5 -year career in t o p - l ev el m oto rc y cle sport, as both poacher and gamekeeper. Aft er a four-year spell fro m 197 1- 74 as Yvon Duham el 's mechani c in the Kawasaki AMA tea m (" lots of win ni ng and crashi ng , als o a few engine disasters," he re c all s), Whit e l o ck mov ed to Honda ' s wo rk s m o tocross team as a dev el op m ent m echanic and sus pe nsio n t ec hn ician for su c h off- ro ad greats as B rad Lac key , Pierre Karsm ak ers and Graham Noyce, vv so eve ntually wi ndi ng up as European motocross race t eam m an ager for the Japanese giant. But with the fo undation of HRC in 19 8 3 , Whitelo ck t ook on a new cha lle ng e when Honda went 500cc Grand Prix raci ng with a two-stro k e fo r th e first time, acti ng as ch ief mechanic for reigni ng World Champion Marco L ucc h i ne ll i' s NS 50 0 t ri p le b ef ore switching back to the off-road world in 19 8 5 to run HRC's tot al World Ch ampionship Motocross ca mpaign, overseeing the world titles gained by star names such as Bayle, Malherbe, Geboers and Th or pe. In 19 89 , it was back to road racing when Hon d a asked Whi telock to be it s Gr and Prix team consultant, th e pol itical representative of the com pa ny o n the IRTA executive bo ard , and liaison with sp o n so r s such as Ro t h m an s and the FIM . Th is w as, h o w e v e r , the sta r t of Wh it elock 's dealings with the world go verning body . "When th e FIM wa s looking for a p ermanent techn ical insp ect o r for W o rld Superb i k e , because I had always r ead t h e rul eb o o k a nd advised the different com pa nies I' d worked for how t o ex pl oi t it, they thought of me," he says. " I gu ess it was a question of setting a thief to c atch a thief! I started in 199 6 , and the j ob has now grown into tech nical director fo r th e series , writing the rules f or bo t h Superbike and Sup erspo r t, and mak ing sure they 're followed within reason - in a fair an d happy way." Thi s approach has earn ed Whitelock the wi despread resp ect of the World Su perbik e paddock over th e past eight years as well as permitted him to walk the narrow line betwe en being perceived as an FIM enforcer, but a m an the teams and manufac tu rers can talk to and know they'll be li st ened to by . Who better t o ask about the controversy su rround ing t h e new Su p er b ik e r ule s h e was responsible fo r draft ing , as well as the reasoning behind doing so? Wh at' s go i n g on witli Wor ld _ Superbike? Technically, that is . Techn ically, we' re trying to arrive at a rules pa ck age that will bring Wor ld Superbi ke back to a nice level. Right now, we 're a bi t out of wh ack effectively, th is season we 've had only two brands racing here. We' re trying t o mak e it t o w h er e 1000cc bikes can all com pete for vi ct ory and ha ve the same potent ial for performance, irrespec tive of how ma ny c y li nde rs they 've got. T ha t's what m y biggest focus has been on - trying t o fi nd a way to int egrate the one-liter fours with the ex isting twins. We can hard ly wr ite a rulebook that's going t o hurt Ducati - the y 're th e backbon e of the series , so you have to be careful not to make the 26 motorcycles,