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/128316
By MICHAEL IN THE PADDOCK SCOTT Hope For The Best Will Wo rld Superbike be a runaway for the like s of Ja mes Tose land (fa r left), or w ill some young gun like Leon Haslam (inset) step to the front? ou have to wonder about the st atu s of a World Championship when you 've never heard of the bloke leading the first race , on a year-old BSB Suzuki. The start of the brave new nonfactory World Superb ike season a few wee ks ago was not auspicious. Much of the new direct ion taken by Britain's one-time favorit e fo ur-stroke champ ionship did seem suicidal, especially when the factories pulled the plug. Sergio Fuertes seizing the early lead in race one seemed to prove it. One should never leap to conclusions. Valencia is a rat her silly and certainly very Thankfully, for the series, race two was the real thing. Properly dry, it gave a proper demonstration of what sort of shape we can expect the series to take . And that was entirely positive. There was a hard and unremitt ing contest for the lead, and fine, fierce battling for the top 10 places not too far behind . And it has every chance of getting better. Leon Haslam rode a hell of a race for a 20year-o ld, before going off like a 20-year-old. Garry McCoy is not to be underrated, though I hope his bike's up to the rider. Ch ris Vermeulen served notice , in capital letters, that he's arrived and he's good; and likewise the Ten Kate Honda. And a few other things beside . It might also get worse. Wait until the factory Ducati guys get to tracks where they can stretch their legs. Wait until Laconi's luck swings the other way. And watch as Toseland strings it together race after difficult racetrack, and when cond itions are wet and dry, it throws up unexpected results . In Grand Prix racing, in bad conditions, the track has yielded several first- ~--""'" race . time race winners . Uke Sete Gibemau in Too soon to say either, of 200 I and (funnily enoug h) also current course, but the first round overall ended World Superbike conte nders Regis Laconi up a shot in the arm for the Flammini and Gary McCoy. Faction. Maybe their vision will come true Race one also proved that even with after all. Whatever it is. spec-class tires, when the weather plays a The real questions run deeper. wild card , it' s still a game of guesswork. We have all the signs of a good series, Also that James Toseland and Chris but do we have a World Championsh ip? Walker are both in their different ways On spec tires? Well, of course, yes. Because the FIM class riders; that Regis Laconi is always prone to extraordinary luck... in th is case, says it is. It has that right. But what kind of a World Championall bad; and that the Foggy Petronas is in danger of turning into a real racing bike. ship? 110 MARCH 24 , 2004 • CYCLE NEWS 40th Anniversary For a number of years, World Superb ike racing was a place that GP riders went after the y retired (one of them, Frankie Chili, is still the re) . The first race in Valencia suggested that the opposite is now true. It may be too late for the likes of Steve Martin, Troy Corser and the redoubtable bounce-back men Chris Walker and Nori Haga, but there was more than a smattering of potential MotoGP talent to be seen. Including, maybe, the precocious Fuertes. Encouragingly, three highly likely lads are English speakers. Toseland is top, but you can certai nly throw in Haslam, who has accumulated a remarkable range of racing experience in his short life. Vermeu len is surely a future GP star as well. All of which bears out what I've been saying for years: that there is a proper place for World Superbike in the World Championship hierarchy, and it is as a feeder class for the senior Grand Prix title. Second question: is it fair that a World Championship runs on spec tires? This one is harder. O ne view is simple: that the highest levels of racing should be the purest competition, open to all possible entrants who meet the technical regulations. I mean, whatever next.. . control motorcycles? Throw all the keys in a trash can, and let the riders pick out their bikes for the race? Then again - what is purity of competitio n? The GP series provides tire compa nies with the correct place to race-devel op the ir products. Why not remove this highly variab le element from World Superbike to even up the differences that little bit more. Surely, simplifying the equation means you have a purer contest? In the end, however, you're only arguing about a name and the status conferred by a name. British fans never cared about that in the glory days of Carl Fogarty. They loved World Superb ike the n because the racing was excellent and the winner had the right accent. They have the same reason to love the new World Superbike. The rest of racing has an even better one : that at last there's a place to break in young ta lent before they climb onto full factory bikes - 990cc 2S0-horsepower prototypes on choose-yo ur-own slick tires. Let's hope it th rives. eN