Opinion piece: World Superbikes, where next?

[Bob]

The World Superbike Championship (WSBK) has been thrown into turmoil, with the announcement that the official Yamaha team will be withdrawn at the end of the 2011 season. Ducati pulled the factory plug last year, both cite the same reason: cost-cutting.

MotoGP is the premier class, and owners Dorna bring a lot of pressure to bear on the manufacturers to run teams in 'their' championship. MotoGP is hugely expensive. Admittedly, Dorna are looking at ways to bring down costs (a 17-bike field for the top class of racing is rather embarrassing, be honest), but MotoGP is a money-pit. So something has to give.

And in the case of Ducati and Yamaha, their WSBK teams.

But is this a bad thing? Perhaps this is the chance for WSBK to reinvent itself.

Click here to read the full piece (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/bob-pickett/world-superbikes-where-ne_b_918770.html)

[imdying]

A 17 bike field is not an embarrassment, it's a field with 7 bikes too many.

[SVboy]

I think he makes a clever argument, which has the potential to make WSB a more compelling watch. I dont think WSB competes with MOTOgp as viewing-they are both distinct in their attractions. Would like to see WSB on poor mans TV.

[pritch]

It is a worry. Maybe there is one series too many?

Yamaha and Ducati don't want to run SBK teams. Kawasaki don't run a GP team and Suzuki mostly run half a team. Honda reportedly want to run just the two factory bikes next year with only one LCR bike?

Could all be looking a bit sparse.

As I've commented before though, I find the racing in SS and Moto3 generally more interesting to watch than their respective main events.

[wordnz]

IMO they should get rid of electronic rider aids from motogp, like F1 did in 2008. That would save heaps of money, and make motogp more exciting to watch.

[Berries]

Yamaha and Ducati don't want to run SBK teams.
Are Ducati running a MotoGP team this season?

[slowpoke]

Check out Honda (Ten Kate), Ducati (Althea, Effenbert Liberty), Kawasaki (Paul Bird), Suzuki (Alstare) operating via privateer franchises: no official factory entry is not the end of the world. Entry numbers have only dropped below 20 once. So with a privateer team leading the championship, what's the problem again? With the current economic climate in mind, saying WSB needs to reinvent itself, or there is a major problem, is stretching the truth as far as I can see.

[Bob]

Check out Honda (Ten Kate), Ducati (Althea, Effenbert Liberty), Kawasaki (Paul Bird), Suzuki (Alstare) operating via privateer franchises: no official factory entry is not the end of the world. Entry numbers have only dropped below 20 once. So with a privateer team leading the championship, what's the problem again? With the current economic climate in mind, saying WSB needs to reinvent itself, or there is a major problem, is stretching the truth as far as I can see.

Yes, there are privateer teams in WSB and they're doing well. But there were crisis-levels of panic when Yamaha announced dropping the works team. This is the sort of thing that is damaging, at least from a public perception.

What I am saying is that, perhaps, this is an ideal opportunity for WSB to look at itself and how they could improve things (and WSB was always supposed to be a privateer championship anyway). This is what they've been doing in the British Superbike championship; result of which is they've just introduced a raft of regulation changes to keep racing competitive within restricted budgets and allow privateer teams to compete on a more level footing with the factory teams.

For full details of the BSB regulation changes: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php/140898-BSB-introduces-performance-restrictions-from-2012-season

I truly believe this is the way for Superbikes to go: create that differentiation and stand-alone identity from MotoGP (there has been too much worry about how many seconds outside MotoGP times WSB is running. So what?)

Of course, it is my opinion - but that's the beauty of this sort of thing; we can all have opinions and it generates discussion! And with luck we might just come up with something beneficial! And there is a healthy debate here, which is just what I was hoping for!