Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Superbike: A Business Update It's all in the name department: Dunlop Motorcycle Tire s, in conjunction w ith its joint venture partner, The Good year Tire & Rubber Company, has announced that the tires supplied for the 2005 AMA Flat Track Cha mpionship will be re branded to car ry the Dunlop name. Goodyear e nte red into a long-term agree ment with the AMA in 2002 to become the "official tire of the AMA Flat Track Champ ionship." The agreement provides the flexibility to de signate the bra nd name , and a decision has been taken to install the Dunlop name. Thus , Dunlop will plan to include flat track racing in its mar keting and advert ising plans for 2005 and forward, accor ding to AMA Pro ore details of the 2005 World M Superb ike season we re firme d up during a me eting be twee n the med ia and the top brass of FG5port - Maurizio and Pao lo Flammini - in Rome, Italy, rece ntly. The Flamminis de clared that this is the first of a regular series of med ia updates it will now undertak e to give advance wa rn ing and reason ing behind any new mo ve s in the World Superbike spher e. The thus far e lusive 13th rou nd In 2005 was confirmed as most like ly to be Spa-Francorchamps in Be lgium - if the req uired safety work can be car ried out. July see ms the most likely date for the race . Less probable solutions were stated as Shanghai in China and an unspecified A merican round. In Briefly... Racing. "D unlop's dominance in motorcycle FGSport 's three Wo rld Champions (from left to right): World Supersport Champion Karl Muggeridge, World Superbike Champion James Tosela nd and World Superstock Champion Lorenzo Alfonsi. 2006, the aim is for 15 races, w ith maybe even two events in the USA. The loss of America as Britain's most important colony after the War of Independence lay heavy on the heart of the then King Geo rge. The loss of Laguna Seca has similarly struck right at the very core of the Flammini brothers, who are still clearly enraged to have what they see as their race shot out from under them by Dorna and MotoGP.Although 2005 will almost ce rtainly be a lost cause for World Supe rbike in the USA, the thr ee circuits under discussion for the 2006 season have been co nfirmed as Portland Internatio nal Raceway, Virginia Internatio nal Raceway and Road Atlanta. All three of these venues require track upgrades, and Portland eve n requi res lengthening. And Maurizio Flamm ini did not rule out the possibility of a return for Laguna 5eca, and even a doubling up of a MotoGP round and a World Superbike round in each season. O ne in July and one in Octob er were the most likely scenarios. The growth of the calend ar in 2006, which is envisaged to have 15 ro unds, could also be into China (Shanghai, Be ijing or Zuhai), South America (Sao Paolo in Brazil), South Africa (Kyalami, probably not Welkom) and even Japan once more (this time Suzuka, pro bably not Sugo). The longer-ter m ambition for 2007 and onward is to have a maximum of 16 races, on all five cont inents. Interestingly desp ite the recent run of , dow nward status, FGSport came ou t and said, via a briefing paper, "We will neve r give up the possibility to get the leaders hip in moto rcycle sport ." C onfirm ation of the biggest new s for FG5port has confirmed that it is forging 2005 is that the ser ies, having ope rated without a title sponsor for som e years, has now tied up a deal with a main sponso r Corona Extra, the Mexican beer company, w hich already sponso rs the World Supersport Se ries. new partnerships w ith financial institutions revised Internet site, w ith more content and interactive aspects. and a European- and partn er com panies (sponso rs and technical partners to you and me) to allow for great e r investm ent op portunities (and, of course , profitability for its operations). The company stresses however, that it will con, tinue to hold personal contro l of the championship, plus World Endurance and its Italian-based Superstars se ries, w ith a majority share in the com pany. With the openi ng of FGSport Iber ia in Madrid, Spain, with 15 em ployees , and the ope ning of a Prague office in the Czech based "rolling road show," which will serve Republic to serve the eme rging Eastern as a prom ot ional advance party at each con- European powe rs, Maurizio Flamm ini nonethe less underl ined th e po int that Europe is still the key marke t for World Superbike, simply because this is w here the Corona Extra is also th e main spo nsor of Francis Barta's Alstare Suzuki team, and Batra's wholly owned promot ions com pany w ill also take over key promotional tasks for the com pany. Those tasks will be a tinental World Superbi ke ve nue. The specifics are as follow s: Three trucks, painted in Corona livery, w ill arrive in the key town near each World Superbi ke venue to be visited and for three weekends be fore each event ther e will be promotions in bars and public places to promote the arr ival of the series. There w ill also be, inside the paddock at each race, an exten ded and invigorat ed Paddock Show, plus an exten sion to the access of the public to the wo rking areas of biggest concentration of fans and Supersport-style machines are to be found . As for 2005 's loo ming re ality, the Super bike grid does indeed look to be oversubscribed for the maximum of 30 pe rmane nt starters. Thirty-tw o, if the outline given in Rome proves accurate , is the current expected to tal, which means two will have to be drop ped. the pits in gantries or corridors w ithin the Estimates put that as five to six D ucatis, pit garages themselves. Having had their fingers burned in their previous alignment with Interpublic and Octagon, the Flamminis have de ter mined to stay in overa ll control of the ir boughtback com pany, wh ich enters its 30th year of four to five Hondas, eight to nine Yamahas, fou r to five Kawasakis, three to four Suzukis and the two Petron as triples. The re may even be two two- man DFX Yamaha teams in operation, including a ride for Spaniard Jose Luis Cardoso . G o r d o n Ritch ie existence in 2005 . racing is clearly established in the U.S., and this opportunity to capitalize on the synergy of the two companies made this an easy decision," said Stu Grant , genera l manager of globa l race tires for Goody ear. From a technical and manufactu ring point of view, develop me nt and production willre main the responsibility of Goodyear. No changes are see n for the upcom ing 2005 seaso n as far as construction or compo und as a result of this brand ing change. As for distr ibution, tires will con tinue to be available through the existing Good year channel only. In order to provide a smoo th transition to the Dunlop brand , Goodyear will wo rk closely w ith its distributors, AMA Pro Racing and Flat Track compet itors to ensure that all existing Goodyear-branded prod ucts are depleted, according to the release. To help facilitate this, Dunlop branded tires w ill not be available until later in the 2005 season , at w hich time both brands will be allowe d to compete unt il the Good year supply is no longe r available. "We are very excited about the opport unity to get involved w ith the AMA Flat Track Championship," said Mike Buckley, vice pres ident for Dunlop's Motorcycle Division. "Having the op portunity to incorpo rate the sport of Flat Track into our forw ard marke ting and advertising plan is something we're looking forward to , and we 're glad to help promote and assist in the growth of the spo rt and its amazing athle tes ." The Kevin Sc hwa ntz Suzuki School has finalized its dates at Road Atlanta for 2005 and w ill offer e ight dates start ing in March and finishing in O ctob e r. W ith a conti nually growing inte rnat ional school schedule that saw K5SS in Germany and Fra nce , as we ll as Japan, in 2004, the U.S. date s will con- McGrath's Supe rcross Plans Seven-tim e AMA Supercro ss Cham pion Je remy McGrath announced last we ek that he plans to race in the first four rou nds of the THQ AMA wonderful opport unity presented itself with the factory Honda team , and let 's just say that the timing was Supercross Series - the An aheim , C aliforn ia; Phoenix, Ar izona ; perfe ct! T here is an immense amo unt of talent competing this season, and I Anaheim II ; and the San Diego, California, stop s of the 17-race ser ies. McGrath will announce the rest of his racing schedule soon afte r the exciting than being on the same track series opener on January 8, according to his publicist . "I have enjoyed spending the past two seasons as a fan and spectator at the Supercross races, but at the same time I have really missed the comp etition and being in the mix," McGrath said in a release. ''A know there will be noth ing mor e w ith this group . I'm also really looking forward to seeing fans in some venues that I haven't been to in years. It's all very exciting." www.cyclenews.com tinue to be a pr ior ity, accord ing to the schoo l. The school dates are as follows; March 14- 15 (two-day), April 8-1 0 (World Cham pion's package), May 30-31 (twoday), June 25-26 (tw o-day), August 29-30 (two-day), September 5-6 (tw o- day), O ctober 10- 11 (two-day) and O cto be r 17-18 (two-day). For mor e information, visit www.schwantzschool.com or call 800/8 49-RACE. Continued on page 7 C YCL E N EWS • DECEMBER 8, 2004 5

• Cover