To balance performance and make the championship more interesting, the rule makers at the WorldSBK series set maximum rev limits for all the entered bikes at the beginning of the season.
This usually isn’t much of a newsworthy event, but with the recent crop of superbikes hitting stratospheric numbers in their homologated street form, it is causing some interesting issues in the WorldSBK Championship.
Episode 128 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is BONUS SHOW for this week, as Steve English and Gordon Ritchie join us on the mics from the WorldSBK pre-season test a Portimão.
For a treat as well, Alex Lowes and Chaz Davies join the show, with special interviews done trackside with Steve.
The 2020 WorldSBK Championship has the promises to be one of the best in recent history, as there are more than a few contenders for the throne lining up on the grid this season.
Of course, there is five-time champion Jonathan Rea, who has been a juggernaut onboard the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR.
Rea will have the target on his back for 2020, that much is for certain, and the Kawasaki Racing Team has shown that they are well-honed operation, and certainly capable of adding metal to Rea’s trophy room.
Testing resumes today at Jerez for the WorldSBK class. At least, it will if the track dries out enough to make conditions usable. Heavy overnight rain has soaked the track, and more rain is expected over the next two days.
The WorldSBK field will be hoping for dry track time for a lot of reasons, not least because it will be the first time that the Honda CBR1000RR-R will be seen at a public test.
As the world of motorcycle racing starts to get into the swing of things, activity is starting to ramp up.
The first of the MotoGP factory launches is due this week, Ducati to present their 2020 livery and (unchanged) rider line up in a 13th Century palace in the middle of Bologna.
That event happens on Thursday evening, January 23rd, and I will be attending to try to find out more about Ducati’s plans for the coming season.
The other factories will have to wait. The three Japanese factories will be launching their bikes just ahead of the Sepang test.
Episode 126 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one covers a little bit of everything – the MotoGP Paddock, the Superbike shuffle, and a bit of palace intrigue.
In this episode, we once again have Steve English, Neil Morrison, and David Emmett on the mics, as the trio discusses the upcoming 2020 racing season for the MotoGP and WorldSBK Championships.
In addition to looking ahead, the guys also take a look back on the headlines that have developed in the off-season, most notably the doping results from Andrea Iannone, which the show spends a fair amount of time discussing.
The launch of the Honda CBR1000RR-R has caused the Superbike Commission, the rule-making body for the WorldSBK series, to take preemptive action to restrict the use of active aerodynamics.
In a press release today, announcing a series of rule changes for the 2020 season, the biggest change is putting limits in place on how dynamic aerodynamics can be used.
The new rules limit the amount of movement available for active, dynamic, or movable aerodynamic parts. Moving parts will be restricted to the range of motion used on the production bike, even if the parts allow greater freedom of movement.
The 2020 WorldSBK Championship calendar has just been released by the FIM, and the 13-round series has some interesting changes for next year.
For American fans, the most obvious and notable change is the lack of a race in the United States, as Laguna Seca has been dropped from the schedule.
Other big changes include moving the Qatar round from the last race of the season, to the second race of the season, which means that it will take place just one week after the MotoGP season-opener at Losail.
Episode 121 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a WorldSBK show, as the production championship comes to us from Qatar..
As such, this means that we see Steve English joined by Gordon Ritchie on the mics, as they are our World Superbike reporting duo for the 2019 season.
Recording straight from trackside at the Losail Circuit, the guys give finish up the 2020 season for World Superbikes, and talk about the racing under the lights and in the desert.
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmelo is to host a round of the World Superbike championship in 2020. The event is to be held from 18-20th September 2020, between the Portimao and Magny-Cours rounds of the series.
The addition of Barcelona presages a few of the changes coming in both the WorldSBK and MotoGP calendars in future years. Next year, WorldSBK loses Buriram in Thailand to MotoGP, and also looks set to lose the race at Laguna Seca in the USA. Instead, WorldSBK will head to Barcelona in September, and the German circuit of Oschersleben in August.
While we don’t know who the second rider will be at the factory-backed Honda team next year in WorldSBK, we do know who it won’t be…and it won’t be Leon Camier.
This is because Camier is headed to a different red bike, the Ducati Panigale V4 R at Barni Racing, for the 2020 season.