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World Superbike death watch?
World Superbike bugout? At the end of last year's race season, Yamaha pulled a shocker and disbanded its World Superbike team. Star rider and 2000-season number two Noriyuki Haga will ride a Red Bull Yamaha YZR500 Grand Prix bike in 2001.
Meanwhile, Jan Witteveen, longserving racing chief at Aprilia, has announced he may seek other employment because of issues with that company’s race policy. Aprilia spends more on Troy Corser’s WSB program, he reveals, than on all of its GP activities in three classes.
The addition of double-displacement (990cc) four-strokes to the 500cc GP class in 2002 has released a flood of conflicting rumors and statements. Most amazing is that of Honda’s Yasu Ikenoya, who speaking at the Portuguese GP last season stated that Honda would produce privateer-friendly four-stroke GP bikes that would be cheaper than either WSB machines or 500cc two-strokes, yet be field-serviceable.
To pull some of this high-flown verbiage down to earth, I spoke with Steve Whitelock. He is currently the WSB tech inspector and has had a long association with GP racing, as well. First, Whitelock said, it is cheaper to build a few high-tech GP bikes than to develop a new production model suitable for WSB competition, and then to produce either the 150 or 500 examples required for homologation (for small or large manufacturers, respectively).
This shouldn’t surprise us. Developing a new production model like a Suzuki GSX-R750 or Honda RC51 is tremendously expensive, but unless that model is purely a homologation special like the RC45 V-Four, those costs are recovered when the machines go on the market-that’s business. It is therefore improper to include development for production as a WSB expense-unless the machines are not sold.
This leaves as a direct expense to racing only the actual development of the production model into a Superbike racer. Still, this expense could be nearly as much as producing a GP bike from scratch.
On the GP side, present-day twostroke 500s are leased to private teams for approximately $1 million per rider, per season (parts are extra). But even factory teams need outside sponsors. Lease and sponsor money helps to cover development and production costs. However, WSB bikes are also leased at high prices, and WSB teams such as Castrol Honda also have outside sponsorship.
Witteveen has an axe to grind. He feels that Aprilia’s fuel-injected 500cc V-Twin GP bike is nearly competitive, but Aprilia President Ivano Beggio has canceled it. This is engineering versus business: Win a 500cc GP with the Twin and sell what? When Corser won a WSB round at Laguna Seca this year, buyers presumably stormed into Aprilia dealerships looking for RSV Milles. Which series would you back?
What about Yamaha’s exit? Is this the darkness before the tornado, or is it a special case? Insiders say Yamaha is overcommitted in 500cc GP for the 2001 season, having to build as many as 16 of their newly competitive YZRs. Internal opinion believes only Haga makes the current Yamaha Superbike competitive-and Haga had a huge offer from Ducati. Damage control has therefore moved Haga onto a Red Bull YZR. That left Superbike hanging, so the team had to go. No mass bugout. Just common sense.
What’s the bottom line? Both WSB and GP racing are big businesses, with valuable TV and other media contracts. Rules and equipment may change, but the shows (plural) must go on. WSB is not going to wither back to a homebuilt class-it is too well established, and there is value in the resemblance of Superbikes to the ones you can buy at dealerships. GP racing is the Big Question. After all its goofy rhetoric, Honda has backpedaled by announcing it will continue to run its two-stroke GP bikes for a while.
Superbike bugout? I don’t think so.
Kevin Cameron
Seeling takes NHRA Pro Stock title
By winning the NHRA Pro Stock Championship, Team Winston Suzuki’s Angelle Seeling became the first woman to do so on a motorcycle. She also became only the second woman to take an NHRA title, the first being Top Fuel driver Shirley Muldowney, who recently came out of retirement and is racing again.
Seeling concluded the 2000 season with five victories under her petite belt, bringing her career tally to 15. She snagged the 2000 title from threetime champ Matt Hines, winning by 102 points. What makes this extraspecial, though, is that last year she came within 8 points of beating Hines, only to choke at the last minute.
“That experience definitely made me appreciate this championship a lot more than I would have last year,” says Seeling, who admits to bouts of depression during that trying season. “I learned a lot last year. I thought winning was the only thing. That’s not true. It’s how you experience the journey along the way. Last year, I almost killed myself trying to win. This year, I enjoyed myself. I realized if I lost I wasn’t going to die.”
But make no mistake, the 30-yearold’s Zen-like attitude doesn’t mean she isn’t vehement about winning future championships. “I have a new goal,” says Seeling, who’s been racing since 1996. “Instead of winning the championship, I have to defend it. The title hasn’t weakened my resolve to win. I don’t think any true champion wants to be a champion just once.”
But first, a few personal asides. As in she’s getting married in February, and is in the throes of wedding plans. Which might be one reason why the season’s end came as a bit of a respite. “Winning was such a relief,” says Seeling. “Star Racing and Team Winston are finally champions, and I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am. Like an Olympic athlete winning the
gold medal."
Wendy F. Black
