Well, it happened. Ducati officially threatened FIM to withdraw from WSBK racing in 2007 if they don’t change the rules to allow 1200cc V-Twins to compete along with inline fours screamers. Ducati has a long and successful history in SBK, they are the only manufacturer who stayed in it through all the years. If they leave, it just won’t be the same. In some sense Ducati IS a part of WSBK just like Ferrari is a part of Fomula 1.

Is it fair for them to demand such a rule change? I understand the reasons behind it, however they should’ve done it BEFORE changing the displacement of production bike. Now FIM is really left with only one option: let them compete. I think it’s called blackmailing. On a positive note the change will open the door for other manufacturers such as Aprilia and KTM who are developing 1 liter + V motors.  On the other hand Japanese factories will no doubt suffer because yet again they will be at disadvantage after they finally caught up with Ducati and we see them winning races.

The solution? Let Ducati race their bike, however they must keep it the same displacement as the street version: 1098cc. Every manufacturer can release some kind of “homologation special” so this should be banned. Only mass produced bikes should be are allowed to race. No fancy 1200R versions please! This way bike manufacturers will be forced to make better bikes for us and racing will be as close as ever! Race what you sell gentlemen….

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 9:03 pm and is filed under Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.