Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

onsidering the dire forecasts for World Supe rbi ke's sur vival made at the start of this season , mostly by pundits close ly connected with t he rival business world of MotoGp, SBK promoters Paolo and Maurizio Flammini show every sign of having the last laugh. In fact, after bottoming out in 2003 when, apart from wild-card Shakey Byrne's Brands double and a single heroic victory by Frankie Chili at Laguna Seca, every race was won by the works Fila Ducatis of Hodgson and Xaus shod with tr ick Michelin tires nobody else had access to, the caliber of the spectacle has arguably been much higher this season, with six different winners in the first six rounds of the 2004 World Championship, and some thrillingly close racing. Moreover, the unbroken 35race run of Desmo dominance since Imola 2002, and Colin Edwards' title-clinching victory for Honda in one of the most exciting motorcycle races ever run, was finally ended at Silverstone in june, in World Superbike's 400th race since its 1988 kickoff. That 's when Chris Vermeulen beat the Ducati mafia on his Ten Kate Honda CBRIOOORR, to register also the first World Superbike victory for a four-cylinder bike since Chili's win at Donington in 200 I on the GSX-750 Suzuki. Whisper it gently in the MotoGP press room, or the executive corridors back in C 28 japan, but World Superbike is actually thriving under the new rules of the game - and that's before 2OOS, whe n things are shaping up to become really thrilling, with more than just two manufacturers in contention for top honors, as at the present time in SBK - and, it could be argued , MotoGP. Contrary to the predictions of the japanese-dominated, Honda-led , MotoGPfocused MSMA manufacturers' cartel in announcing their boycott of the World Superbike series seven months ago, the revised SBK technical regulations created by FIM technical director Steve Whitelock to admit the new generation of 1000cc four-cylinder Superbikes have proved to be entirely successful in returning Superbike racing to its roots, by permitting a dealer-modified streetbike to have the beating of the massed ranks of Ducati twin-cylinder exotica , including the Filasponsored works team - and at considerably reduced cost. The 21-year-old Vermeulen's victory at Silverstone on the Ten Kate Honda , the presence of which in the series is underwritten only by Honda Europe, not the head office in japan, and which eight weeks before the first race of the season in Valencia still had lights and a horn, was a watershed in the evolution of the Superbike class. In a way, though , it was the performance of another rider that day that was equally important. Riding a self- JULY 14, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS sponsored privateer Yamaha RI, with minimal modifications thanks to a chronic lack of budget , 23-year-old two-time former European Superstock and reigning World Endurance Champion james Ellison both qualifiedand finishedseventh as a wild card in the same race, having taped up his only bike - the team's resources don't run to a spare - after crashing in the first race. Cynics will say that this merely underlines the paucity of quality on the SBK '04 grid - but disinterested observers won't fall for that line. Among the riders Ellison beat fair and square were Garry McCoy, an ex500cc GP winner and already an SBKvictor this season at Phillip Island on his NCR Ducati RS04, and former World Champion Troy Corser, on pole for the previous round in Germany aboard the exotic MotoGP-derived Foggy Petronas triple. The new rules have proved a great leveller, even before considering the control tire issue - and the new generation of 1000cc four-cylinder sportbikes are good enough right off the showroom floor to provide an affordable and competitive basis for going Superbike racing at the top level. The performances of these two young riders on the new japanese fours, and of others like Mauro Sanchini, a race leader at Misano on Team Bertocchi's barely developed new Kawasaki ZX-I OR, have not only proved the worth of the new rules, but also underlined that replenishment is 40th Anniversary under way of the pool of top-level Superbike and Superstock riders , which has been sucked half-empty by the sudden arrival of MotoGP. Fact is, wh ile there will always be occasional exceptions to the rule, Grand Prix racing's traditional 250cc GP 100-horsepower/200-pound twostroke breeding ground for the next generation of works riders in its topmost catego ry is no longer appropriate in these days of 240-bhp/3OO-pound four-stroke MotoGP speed missiles. At the point that MotoGP replaced 500cc ring-ding racing, riders coming from the 200-bhp/350-pound Superbike class or its Supersport! Superstock junior spinoffs, who moreover already knew all about a key ingredient called engine braking, were a much better bet in being able to adapt quickly and capably to this ultrabike category, as the presence of Troy Bayliss, Colin Edwards, Nicky Hayden, Ruben Xaus , Neil Hodgson, Shakey Byrne, Michel Fabrizio, Chris Burns and Andrew Pitt will attest - and Kurtis Roberts, too, though he's done 250GP as well. That's 40 percent of the MotoGP starting lineup, and their sudden absence accounts for the undeniable sense of vacuum that the SBK paddock had at the start of this season, the sense that it had lost its spark. But the performance of the new generation of young tyros , epitomized by Vermeulen, Ellison and Nori-chan's teammate Leon Haslam, who at the same age as

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