WHERE IS WORLD SUPERBIKE GOING?

THE VIEW FROM INSIDE THE PADDOCK

World Superbike went its own way as a productionbased roadracing series until it came under Dorna management in July 2012. Although the 2013 series went ahead as planned, changes were soon made in technical rules. In a recent interview, Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta commented, “In the past this was a championship that wanted to compete with MotoGP, but it doesn’t work. You cannot compete with MotoGP.”

Just over two weeks ago, the website GPOne noted that all it takes is a slight upset—rain or tire problems—to bring the lap times of WorldSBK and MotoGP very close together, as they were at Assen. This result is despite four years of rules changes intended to push World Supers closer to stock.

Ezpeleta continued, “We