Paolo and lfIIaur;z;o Flam;n;
6pcakil1$ out for Worlb Supctbikc Survival
,
~
und er t he aegis of th e fa mily -o w ned Ro me- based
B Y A LA N CATHCART
PH OT OS BY KEL E DGE
Fl am m in i Gro up, the n fro m la te 1997 unt il earlier
rn, aol o
Fl amm ini , 4 0 . and his fo rme r star racing
dr iver brother Mau rizio , 53, hav e co ntrolled th e
fortu n es of th e W o rld Su p erb i k e Ch amp i on ship
sin c e 1990, wh en th ey acquired the ri g ht s t o the
ser ies from the ba nk rupt Aust ralasian p romoters
wh o had founded the ser ies in 19 88 . During their
14 -year tenu re since then , the Flam m inis ha ve been
resp o nsibl e for the dramatic growth of streetbikebased road racing to worldwid e prom inence - first
) 1:
12
NOVEMBER 19.2003 '
cu e
FIM . However, the F lamm in is' cand id ap p rova l of
I
e
new m easur es aimed at eq ualizing th e ne w genera-
this yea r under th e um bre lla of O ct agon Mot or sp orts,
a who lly owned division of A m eric a's m assive Inter -
tion of fou r-cyli nde r m od els with th e existing tw in s
o t her th an via th e ha te d re str i c t o r s (see St ev e
pub lic Co rp . conglomerate w ith which the Fl am m in is
Wh it eloc k ' s interv iew), c o unt ered by the o utrig ht
had cemented a j oint venture . But bac k in March, t he
denu nciation of the se by th e MSMA ma nufa cturers'
tw o It a lian b ro t hers reacq uired fro m O c ta g on th e
ca rte l, has created a hu g e ele ment of un c ertaint y
c omplete righ ts to th e series , which is no w onc e
ove r exact ly wh ere the Superbik e class is headed.
aga in promot ed unde r the ir FGSport ban ner.
Betw een FGSpo rt 's shocking dec ision t o impose a
Th ere has been ongo ing co ntroversy ov er the new
o ne-make ti re ru le in bo th Superbike a nd Super -
W o rld Sup erb ik e regula ti on s p ro mulgated b y t h e
sp ort World C h am p i o n shi p s f rom next seas on
nevu
s
