Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 26 JULY 1, 2014 P125 eral rules allow every kind of bike to be competitive, because they were evolved to do just that. Trouble is, all this extra kit to reach and then control over 200 horsepower costs money, effort, and takes clever people to pull all the string theories together. World Superbike was certainly super-competitive but too expen- sive for many. The grids dropped, even if the racing action up front was still retina melting in intensity and breadth of competition. Sadly fewer and fewer specta- tors turned up, and World Super- bike was looking a shadow of its former status and image. When Dorna took over the high- ly competitive SBK series (in ad- dition to their long time baby Mo- toGP), the comments emanating from Spain, official and unofficial, were stark. Uncompromising. World Superbike was going to be positioned one rung up from Superstock; and damn quick too. Dorna's self-generated Evo bikes, with stock engines and price controlled, but full race, chassis add-ons, came along in 2014 (as were lots of chassis cost limits for the full SBK teams as well). Even at the first opportunity Dorna had drawn back from the full Superstock option. The Evo bikes were much more affordable than the full World Superbikes – thank goodness - but were and are well off the pace of the SBK bikes. Nonetheless, Evo unquestion- ingly saved the World Superbike grid and SBK was still heading towards an all-Evo future in 2015, until relatively recently. Even a quick run through the full 2015 technical rules, how- ever, shows that the final ver- sion owes a lot more to the full Superbikes than the soon-to-be- defunct Evo formula. Ride by wire? In for two more years, even if the donor bike does not have it now. As all the main protagonists' streetbikes will have it soon, and need to use their own stuff sooner or later, the two-year limit seems a good compromise. Compromise, re- member that word. Electronics? Use whatever ECU and ancillary parts you want as long as other teams using your machines can get them for a very limited cost, and you stay within the permitted number of sensors. Chassis rules? Are as free as 2014, with cost capped full race equipment still allowed. Chassis homologation dimension limits are being – quite rightly – tight- ened up, however. Stock engines? No, even that central part of the Dorna plan has been dropped, as in 2015 you can tune the top end, change the cams, and put in alternative con- necting rods for safety and reli- ability. No more big reductions in crank weight, however. So why, when Dorna were so recently adamant that they had to go stock all the way, have they so quickly and quite comprehensively compromised their original plans? Reality is the simple answer. Only two or three manufactur- ers each year would be com- petitive under the existing Evo rules. Just like they are now. So the rest would have no reason to race. Given the unavoidably long life spans of Superbikes as showroom models in the past few years, the least competitive bikes would be out for a long time too. Additionally, manufacturers re- ally do want to continue to use at least one Superbike series for fu- ture bike development. Now they can, maybe even within sensible cost limits, and in a rational way. All the manufacturers lost something in the recent rules ne- gotiations, but crucially they also got to keep their most important areas of development or advan- tage. As compromises go, so far so good. The final reality is that Dorna knows that they really need the manufacturers on their side in a manufacturer-based series, es- pecially if they intend World Su- perbike to grow to its previous size and penetration in a post apocalyptic sponsorship world. They have to have a top show with top names to market and promote, after all. We will never know if the new technical rules can deliver on their early promise (half of that word 'compromise' again…) until the first races of 2015, but so far, so not-bad-at-all. CN

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