Why the FIM Wants to Slow Superbikes

There is more to this than meets the eye. The FIM is in favor of what some call the 'dumbing down' of Superbike racing because they need to prevent the two championships of MotoGP and WSBK from overlapping and confusing the differences between a prototype series and a production-based series. At present the current World Superbike regs cater to a breed of highly-modified, electronically sophisticated 1000cc four or 1200cc twin with power comparable in to many ways to the most powerful MotoGP 800cc prototypes.

This creates a problem down the line for the MSMA because their vision of Grand Prix racing is for yet smaller (perhaps even as small as 600cc) four-stroke prototypes with even smaller tanks and more advanced electronics. But if they make another reduction in capacity and require even more stringent fuel consumption after this five-year cycle of 800cc machines runs out in 2012, there is, for the FIM, the worry that development of the big 1000cc to 1200cc Superbikes, with their bountiful fuel tanks and MotoGP-spec electronics, could lead to a situation where Superbikes are more powerful, faster in a straight line, and comparable in lap and race times.

But that is a problem for Dorna and FGSport to worry about� and the Flammini brothers have to worry that the price for such a horsepower race with MotoGP would be such an increase in costs that their big 28-rider grid might start shortening as private teams are unable to pay the costs.

Aside from trying to differentiate between MotoGP and WSBK and 'keep Superbike in its place' (since Dorna pays much more in rights fees), the FIM is also concerned that Superbike racing is becoming too expensive for national teams and too fast for national tracks.

New AMA Rules Expected to Follow British Example

The AMA Pro Racing Board has already drafted new regulations for the 2009 season, but they have not been made public yet. People in the know are confident that the new rules are much more restrictive and closer to a kind of 1000cc Supersport class than what has been the traditional AMA Superbike class that allows much more aggressive preparation and greater freedom to modify or replace production components.

In June of 2006 the FIM and FGSport met with representatives of the leading national Superbike championships, primarily the British BSB and American AMA Superbike, for the purpose of reining in the technical freedoms of production-based racing.

This is one of the major objectives of the FIM and newly-elected president Vito Ippolito. The Venezuelan, in his first year in office, has taken strong positions on the future of racing; he believes that Superbike racing must shed pretensions of competing with MotoGP in a performance race and that racing in general should limit or eliminate electronic rider aides

Although FGSport has, at least for the moment, failed to follow this lead, the AMA has expressed, at least in these meetings, a firm intention of moving toward much more restrictive regulations. The AMA's Keith Keizer and Kevin Crowther have liaised with the British MCRCB and have prepared a 2009 rules package that should be very similar to the 2008 British rules.

If this is true AMA teams will be looking at a Superbike class with engines of much milder tune.

In the weeks since I began this series -- a complete outsider's take on the AMA roadracing situation -- I have learned a few things and had to correct a couple of mistakes. I got Mel Harris mixed up with Pat Alexander and I attributed Eric Bostrom's three wins of Dunlop to Michelin by mixing up 2004 and 2005.

But, as I bring this to a close, I can't avoid the feeling that I have been through all this before, written the same articles and asked some of the same questions back in the late eighties and early nineties when the FIM, like the AMA nearly twenty years later, went about the traumatic process of leasing rights to championships that had always been, almost by some kind of divine right, the exclusive patrimony of the federation.

Things are getting ready to change here in the States and it seems that everyone is being consulted except the people who ultimately determine the success or failure of any racing series -- the fans. A new promoter might want to poll the fans on what they like and what they don't like about AMA Superbike racing.

Of course, the decision by the AMA as to which bidder will win the rights to AMA Superbike will not be made on the basis of reason or democracy. It will be the bidder with the best combination of bucks and clout.

I hope, for the sake of the sport, that this decision, probably the most important that the federation will ever make, will introduce a professional promoter with vision, like Dorna, FGSport, or the MCRCB, three entities that, although they disagree on many things, run exciting and prosperous championships with strong TV audiences, full grandstands, full grids, and the exciting and essential uncertainty of starting the season with multiple favorites on several different brands of bike.

That is what Superbike racing is all about.