WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 51 ISSUE 25 JUNE 24, 2014 P87
sweeter was all the hard work Sykes put in
to be fit to race after the Sepang crash.
"I do not think people realized how much
of my life I dedicated to trying to come here
in the best possible shape," Sykes said of
his pre-race regime since getting home
from Sepang. "I was flying all over the place.
RUBBER SOUL
Pirelli, World Superbike
tire supplier since the early
1990s and provider until at
least the end of 2015, have
had two classes to supply in-
side the Superbike category
in 2014. At Misano they
added a special Superbike
tire, after making special Evo
rears at previous rounds to
try and reduce the gap to the
full Superbikes.
This differential tire strat-
egy will be short lived as in
2015 they will have a new hy-
brid Evo/full Superbike class
to supply, which will have
less top power than now, but
maybe not so much accord-
ing to Pirelli Moto Racing
Manager Giorgio Barbier.
"Maybe not so much
less," Barbier said. "We
have worked a lot this year
on the soft tire options and
that means usually the SC0.
So, this year we decided to
bring the SC0 to all the races
as soon as we came back in
Europe, as well as the other
tire options at each round.
That was for the Superbike
class. For the Evo class, it
was always something that
was related to the area of the
SC0, but on the soft side,
so hopefully it would perform
even better."
There was a new devel-
opment for the full Superbike
riders at Misano as well.
"At Misano this is the
first time that we brought
something even softer
than the SC0, also for the
Superbikes," said Barbier.
"This is [in] order to show to
the full Superbike riders that
as well as the SC0 there is
some development for those
riders as well - not only the
Evo class."
For 2015, the proof of
the overall Superbike tire
performance will come in the
pudding of real lap times.
Barbier well knows this, but
he still has to make a plan for
2015 beginning right now.
"We should now have a
clear idea of what will work
for the new class next year,"
Barbier said. "Will the bikes
be, in reality, 80 percent Su-
perbike and 20 percent Evo?
Or some other ratio? I am
not completely sure, but we
will be in the right range for
next year. As soon as we can
see at the beginning of next
year what the [power] figures
will be in the new class, we
will work on it. The important
matter this year is the work
we have been making on the
softest solutions ever."
Pirelli Moto Racing Manager Giorgio
Barbier discusses things with Suzuki
team manager Paul Denning.
