GSE quits World Superbike Championships!!!!!!!!!!!
Discussion
MCN said:
The British GSE Racing team will quit the World Superbike series following the final round of the 2003 championship at Magny-Cours on October 19.
The team has not been able to secure full manufacturer support for next season, in the wake of new rules and regulations for 2004, which include the introduction of a control tyre. To read more about the rules, follow the link on the right.
GSE currently runs Brits James Toseland and Chris Walker in WSB on Ducati 998s. They are currently third and sixth and in the championship.
" GSE Racing is currently assessing its future position, " said team boss Darrell Healey. " There are a number of exciting opportunities and I hope we can make an announcement about this in the near future. "
Healey and the team believe the new rules have stopped manufacturers committing to the series.
It's official Maurizio Flammini is trying to outdo Bernie Ecclestone in ruining a top class motorsports series.
2004 WSB Champion will be Steve Martin, as he's the only Pirelli runner this year and will be the only competitor next year.
Monster Mob (with Shane Byrne) were going to racing in WSB in 2004 but that's all up in the air too. So with GSE coming back to the UK (I'm sure) the British Superbike Championship will be the superbike championship to compete in.
Daryl Healy has told all his team members to talk to other teams for work next year, incl. Toseland and Walker. They can not garauntee factory supprt and therefore they would be going backwards to run a bike 2 yrs or more old.
Healy has said initially that he only wants to race at a world level, but he is such and enthusiast I would be surprised if he didn't show up somewhere.
Francis Batha (sp) has also said publicly that he will not run a Team on control tyres, so who's going to run the Suzuki's ?
Ten Kate were going to run Vamuelin (sp) on the new Blade, but it now looks like they are definitely staying in Supersports due to factory support not be ing forthcoming with the new rules.
I struggle to believe that Flammini is not going to back down, regardless of his public adamancy that he will not. With MotoGP so successful, they will end up running a Proddie based class along with the new 600GP spec which will come through in the next couple of years.
There is an argument to say that MotoGP will start to become prohibitively expensive for Teams and currently is no different to WSB (Ducati) in class domination by Honda. The only other truly competitive machine is the Ducati, just look at this weekends results.
Once the other factories such as Aprilla, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Suzuki get bored of just filling the grid they will start to look to go back into championships which they can win.
It is embarassing for these factories to keep running in last place and unless they make some incredible leap forward in tech/ability this is not going to change in the short to medium term.
My fear is that GP level racing will ultimately end up like F1 with 3 manufacturers at the front Ducati/Honda/Yamaha who will win everything. The rest will just make up the numbers and occasionally win if it's wet, which is even harder with the new 4 strokes as the power is easier to put down in the wet than the strokers were ....
Unlike F1, MotoGP will still be a spectacle to watch, as they have this thing called overtaking !
Healy has said initially that he only wants to race at a world level, but he is such and enthusiast I would be surprised if he didn't show up somewhere.
Francis Batha (sp) has also said publicly that he will not run a Team on control tyres, so who's going to run the Suzuki's ?
Ten Kate were going to run Vamuelin (sp) on the new Blade, but it now looks like they are definitely staying in Supersports due to factory support not be ing forthcoming with the new rules.
I struggle to believe that Flammini is not going to back down, regardless of his public adamancy that he will not. With MotoGP so successful, they will end up running a Proddie based class along with the new 600GP spec which will come through in the next couple of years.
There is an argument to say that MotoGP will start to become prohibitively expensive for Teams and currently is no different to WSB (Ducati) in class domination by Honda. The only other truly competitive machine is the Ducati, just look at this weekends results.
Once the other factories such as Aprilla, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Suzuki get bored of just filling the grid they will start to look to go back into championships which they can win.
It is embarassing for these factories to keep running in last place and unless they make some incredible leap forward in tech/ability this is not going to change in the short to medium term.
My fear is that GP level racing will ultimately end up like F1 with 3 manufacturers at the front Ducati/Honda/Yamaha who will win everything. The rest will just make up the numbers and occasionally win if it's wet, which is even harder with the new 4 strokes as the power is easier to put down in the wet than the strokers were ....
Unlike F1, MotoGP will still be a spectacle to watch, as they have this thing called overtaking !
having only been watching bike sport for a year and not really knowing anything about it before I have really enjoyed watching it this year.
BSB.WSB and moto GP also just got sky and watched some mad street racing for teh first time
any way IMO some of the best races this year in WSB were with the wild cards. The first race with Ukio Kagayama* and the second one with JR and shakey at brands were fantastic.
With the control tyre there will be no wildcards
BSB.WSB and moto GP also just got sky and watched some mad street racing for teh first time
any way IMO some of the best races this year in WSB were with the wild cards. The first race with Ukio Kagayama* and the second one with JR and shakey at brands were fantastic.
With the control tyre there will be no wildcards
FourWheelDrift said:
Luckily in MotoGP you can have more than one Honda, Ducati or Yamaha team. So they will always be overtaking opportunities (regardless of smaller size over F1 cars).
Can never see Ferrari, Williams or McLaren building customer cars for other teams.
Ferrari do supply engines to other teams and McLaren use a sourced engine, this is in line with Ducati who are saying they will supply both bikes and engines to teams next year. WCM may run Ducati engine in the own frames as Moriwaki run RCV engines in their own frames at limited rounds this year. This could prove great news. Tamada's 3rd place at Rio was fantastic news as it brings in another tyre manufacturer to the equation. Look out for Bridgestone runners at next years Qatar GP where it is going to be 'really' hot.
Unless the other manufacturers produce competitive machinery we will continue to see Honda dominate, with everyone complaining that "if I had an RCV then ....."
The only other competitive machine out there at the moment is Ducati, whose 2004 machine is already breaking lap records at Mugello in testing ..
However, the rest of the manufacturers are well off the pace and Yamaha has only appeared on the podium once this year, Checa in Le Mans when it was wet. Otherwise it has been the domain of Honda and Ducati.
The sport is one of the greatest spectacles on earth IMO, but is beginning to suffer with single manufacturer domination. I really hope it will change as part of the greatest attraction is the mix of machinery.
The rumoured Rossi move to another manufacturer would be the greatest thing for the sport currently, however the likelihood of this is minimal...
The sport itself will remain a far greater spectacle than F1 could ever hope to be even if they were all on RCV's !
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