Ducati weight penalty delayed.

Further to the bulletin issued on 19 May 2008. MCRCB has received a communication at 7.00pm this evening from Ducati Corse advising that it would be not be safe for the Ducati 1098R motorcycle to race with a dry weight in excess of 168 kilograms without prior testing.

Accordingly and to alleviate the immediate need for the fitment of additional ballast MCRCB Bulletin 2008/6 is superseded by the following.

For immediate application and valid for the event at Donington Park 24-26 May only.

What a farce...

At last some common sense has prevailed in this instance.
Let's look forward to a great weekend of qualifying/racing.

What we need to see now is Shakey and Shafter to do a double 'one-two' in both races and then MCRCB can go stick that in their pipe and smoke it !! Haslam may be a handful round Donny on the Firebucket tho :-)

Yep, this is all a massive farce.

In fact, BSB has really taken a turn for the worse this year. Last year the series could do no wrong, but this year something has changed that has made the series,in my opinion, very weak. Perhaps it's because Rio and Rea have gone, perhaps it's the rule changes, but something has changed.

Nitro Nori ... depends if said Fireblade rider decides to take up skittles again or not.

Yeah agree with you Tim. I'm not against them adding weight to the bike as it would seem they do have an unfair advantage, especially with the new engine rules. It's obvious the Ducati is a better bike than most others when it is raced in it's original form (can't remember who said that they were the nearest thing to a track/race bike when they come out of the box but it's obviously true) unlike the 4's who need a lot more adaptations to make them as competitive.
Not getting into the whole 1200 vs 1000 thing as it's been done to death.
My issue was the way they just changed the rules with a couple of days notice..wasn't fair on anyone but especially not fair on the fans due up at Donny

Shane byrne has done nothing for 2 years now he will win each race at every weekend, ducati cup, even as you all say others have fallen and with out the red flags shane would still be leading the points and would have 6 wins series is a joke run by ****s.

If they do a double I'd love to see them get 20kgs!

The only way a bike can be unsafe is if you try ride it beyond its limits. If those limits are 2/10ths of a second slower with 10kgs weight, then that's where u ride ... & thats why the weight was added in the 1st place - to slow a bike down thats faster than Ducati promised t would be!

Lousy decision MCRCB, get some backbone.
Look out for the protests & appeals from other teams.

If they do a double I'd love to see them get 20kgs!

The only way a bike can be unsafe is if you try ride it beyond its limits. If those limits are 2/10ths of a second slower with 10kgs weight, then that's where u ride ... & thats why the weight was added in the 1st place - to slow a bike down thats faster than Ducati promised t would be!

Lousy decision MCRCB, get some backbone.
Look out for the protests & appeals from other teams.

Ah Cubic Rube, My issue exactly, as i've been saying this past few days but some people can't seem to understand how unfair the notice served was.( Not the penalty which is fine, just the timing )

Oh joy, Dice is back.

what a lot of crap!

What would the organisers do if shakey and camier were to put on 10kg? Unlikely I know, but would it still have to go on the bikes?

Lousy post Dice, get some brains.

Don't often post, but just wanted to add my view point. I agree to a certain degree re the timing of the announcement, but the fact of the matter is GSE could have just put more fuel in the bike for this round and the safety argument from GSE was a joke - as Stuart Higgs says POST race weight of Byrne's bike was 176kg at Thruxton - meaning before the race, ie with more fuel, it would have been significantly heavier. GSE/Ducati put MSVR in an impossible possition as they were indicating that MSVR be liable if a rider injured themselves in a crash, and impossible to prove that weight had a bearing on it. MSVR backed down for the fans to see a full grid, but GSE have just proved petulant.

Tim Bo ... come to the track so we can teach u about racing motorcyles, then maybe u can post with first hand knowledge & not what u hear from others or read in the news.

This is a question for only those people that hav either raced or worked in a race team, not the armchair geniuses.
Have you ever gone into a test session with the goal of seeing how safe a bike is?

I havent! I'v tested bikes / tyres / new components / diff settings for:
A) single lap performance
B) race distance performance
THAT'S IT!

If we're running 1:19.1's, & the questioning is can we do 1:18.8's ... & the answer is yeah but we may not survive, well I guess we know its not safe then, so we do 1:19.1's.

& Danum if you dont have the grey matter to work out the logic, dont criticise the post ...

Delboy ... I wish you would post more. Those sorta facts will make people realise how ridiculous Darrell & Colin are being, & how much of a smokescreen the 'safety' excuse is.

This whole situation is plain weird.

Please MCRCB show us the evidence that the Ducati has an advantage. I think it has, but you can make rule changes on the ground of a bike 'looking quicker'.

Surely there must be evidence - top speed, bhp/torque per kg, acceleration figures SOMETHING?? If you want this rule change to be accepted you need to explain it.

Good move delaying it though. Even if it's the right thing to do, you can't spring it on a team a few days before a race.

If the MCRCB wanted to play hardball on this issue they could exclude the GSE team from the championship.

They have grounds within the rules, now that GSE has openly admitted the bike may not be safe within the rules of the championship - ie a 175KG Ducati.
If the manufacturer (in this case Ducati Corse) has expressed doubts, the FIM could also question the eligibility of the Ducati's in all competition & force them to withdraw until they have proven their bike to be safe under a variety of conditions.

Oh, wouldnt that be just fantastic. Beaten with your own stick GSE!

Dice, maybe that s the explanation why you re writing on the inet being arrogant these days and not racing. Mine is injury.
"If we're running 1:19.1's, & the questioning is can we do 1:18.8's ... & the answer is YEAH BUT WE MAY NOT SURVIVE, well I guess we know its not safe then, so we do 1:19.1's. "

that s bs. stop bashing people s opinions and post something worthy, not this " i ve been a racer" crap. a rider who tells his team he cant go faster because the bike is "not safe" at that pace is a MOANER.