Following increasing speculation that the World Superbike technical regulations will be changed to give twin-cylinder machinery a 200cc capacity advantage - bringing them up to 1200cc - in the face of growing four-cylinder opposition, WSBK organiser's FGSport have today released the following statement.
The statement claims that no such rule changes have yet been "analysed, discussed or planned" but does state that "the Superbike category should be a mirror of real-world marketplace reality" and that "should the market of the future be characterised by changes, in particular where the capacity of what are effectively regular showroom models is concerned, FIM and FGSport believe that these changes should be mirrored in the Superbike World Championship technical regulations."
Ducati and KTM are believed to be planning to introduce 1200cc twin-cylinder production Superbikes to take on the 1000cc fours in the showroom; with the Italian manufacturer - which has long dominated WSBK - arguing that the level of tuning now needed to make their 999 competitive on the race track is becoming too expensive. In
MotoGP minimum weight levels vary depending on the number of cylinders, to help level the competition, but in WSBK the only advantage twins have is a greater level of allowed modifications.
Nevertheless, with Ducati 999 riders currently leading both the World Superbike championship (with Troy Bayliss) and the British Superbike championship (with Gregorio Lavilla) many teams running four-cylinder machinery - which for many years raced (largely unsuccessfully) against 1000cc twins with just 750cc - find talk of again handing twins a capacity advantage hard to swallow... especially with WSBK currently enjoying near unprecedented levels of manufacturer involvement, competitiveness and world wide interest.
