Vol. 20.02
Welcome to the ‘New Normal’ Action Returns In The Face Of Covid-19 WorldSBK Testing At Barcelona MotoAmerica Season Kicks Off At Road America BSB testing at Donington Park
July 2020 €5 £4.50 $6USD
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SBK Journal | Vol. 20.02 Welcome to second issue of SBK Journal for 2020. Well that didn’t go quite as we all planned. Firstly, I have to hope that everyone has remained safe and well in the last months. However, I can imagine that someone, somewhere will be directly affected by Covid-19 and everyone involved with the production of SBKJournal send our best wishes to one and all. When I returned from round one of the WorldSBK championship in Australia on March 2nd it was clear that there was the start of a pandemic of the new coronavirus but little did I realise that months on I would still be at home. As with many people it has actually been a very productive period, finally getting the gardening, house painting and garage clear out done. For SBKJournal we took the decision to take a break again and wait until we had fresh up-to-date content to fill the pages. That has taken longer than expected but we are now there. In the last month we have seen the MotoAmerica series start their season at Road America whilst the WorldSBK teams got back on track at tests in Misano and Barcelona. The British Superbike Championship has re-rranged their calender as well but the teams have only just started testing in recent weeks with racing scheduled to start at the beginning of August. In this issue we will take a look at those first MotoAmerica races through the lenses of Corey J Coulter whilst yours truly headed out to Barcelona to enjoy the hot sunshine at the WorldSBK test. Jamie Morris has been down Silverstone and Donnington way in the UK checking out the BSB contenders. Hopefully this ‘New Normal’ will continue over the next few months and all the superbike racing seasons will get to complete their re-arranged calendars. SBKJournal will ofcourse be there to bring you all the best images. Thank you for stopping by and we hope you continue to stay safe. Graeme Brown
image: vaclav duska jr
Leon Haslam - Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade WorldSBK Testing - Circuit de Barcelona - Catalunya July 8, 2020 Image: Graeme Brown
Jonathan Rea - Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Testing - Circuit de Barcelona - Catalunya July 9, 2020 Image: Graeme Brown
Eugene Laverty - BMW S1000RR WorldSBK Testing - Circuit de Barcelona - Catalunya July 9, 2020 Image: Graeme Brown
Cameron Beaubier - Yamaha YZF-R1 MotoAmerica - Round 01 - Road America, Elkhart Lake, WI May 30, 2020 Image: Corey J. Coulter
Bobby Fong - Suzuki GSX-R1000 MotoAmerica - Round 2 - Road America, Elkhart Lake, WI June 28, 2020 Image: Corey J Coulter
Andrew Irwin - Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade BSB Testing - Donington Park - UK July 28, 2020 Image: Jamie Morris
Hector Barbera - BMW S1000RR BSB Testing - Donington Park - UK July 28, 2020 Image: Jamie Morris
a procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something, especially before it is taken into widespread use.
BACK ON TRACK WorldSBK Testing
Circuit de Barcelona
Words and Pictures: Graeme Brown
THE NEW NORMAL
The FIM Superbike World Championship held a rather unique position in motorsport in that it actually managed to hold an event before the world ground to a halt in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. Five months on from the frist round of the series in Phillip Island we are on the cusp of resuming racing at Jerez de la Frontera in Andalucia, Spain. One of the frustrating things was that that first race weekend served up a treat with close racing and the odd slice of controversy. Five time champion Jonathan Rea had failed to score any points in the first race after coming off second best of spirited riding from Tom Sykes. He bounced back to win the Superpole race on Sunday but was bested by his new team-mate Alex Lowes in race two. Lowes left Australia in ebuliant mood with a 12 point lead in the standings and itching to get back at it in Qatar. We all know what happened next and now finally the wait is over to resume what will be a truncated season, and hope that the close racing in Phillip Island is carried over.
Fortunately there have been a couple of opportunities for the teams to test before we go racing at the start of August. These not only provided the opportunity to test the race machines but allowed the teams to test their own health and safety protocols that will be required at the tracks once the racing gets underway again. The Aruba.it Ducati sqaud rented the Misano World Circuit at the end of June and were joined by Kawsaki Racing Team, as the main contenders, whilst Honda chose to have a private test at Motorland Aragon and BMW visited Eurospeedway Lausitz around the same time. Of the main championship contenders Pata Yamaha were the only one who would wait until July and the test in Barcelona to return to the track. It seemed that there was very much a feeling of the tests being used as much as a shakedown as well as a full on development tests. The circuit in Misano had been resurfaced over the winter and it took the teams a day to acclimitise to the higher grip levels, as well as the soaring temperatures on the Italian Riviera in late June.
Jonathan Rea was pressed hard to try and adapt his set up to the higher grip levels in Misano. “After the long break I was not so happy with the normal base bike setting this morning. They have re-asphalted the circuit at Misano and the grip level is so high – abnormally high – which means we have had to take some grip away from our bike to make it a little bit smoother. I had a crash this morning which I was able to rebound from, pretty fast. For day one I feel satisfied but we’ve still got work to do to be comfortable.” commented Rea. Team-mate Alex Lowes, on the other hand, continued an extensive programme of development on the Ninja ZX-10RR completing a gruelling 84 laps on the first day alone. By the end of the second day the race to the top of the time sheets was contested by Rea and Ducati’s new boy Scott Redding. The 2019 British Superbike Champion came out on top by a few tenths of a second but he was relatively downbeat, tending to focus more on the benefit of being back on track. “We have worked a lot especially with used tyres and we have tried new solutions that have given positive feedback. In the end, I also managed to set a good chrono but this is not important. It was great to get back to work with the guys and I can’t wait to get back on track”. The teams all moved to Barcelona at the start of July and once again were met with blisteringly hot temperatures. That will be a good preparation for the race weekends in Jerez and Portimao at the start of August with ambient temperatures expected to reach 40˚C. This was the first time we had seen all the main championship contenders together on track since the race weekend at Phillip Island. It is always difficult to judge the progress a team or a rider is making during testing as they are often working on different aspects of their individual set ups at the same time. The one thing that everyone uses as a litmus test are the fastest lap times at the end of each day. That can also be a game of bravado on and off the track with some riders using super sticky qualifying tyres and others still only using a harder compound race tyre that in general gives slightly slower laptimes, as a compromise over the life of the tyre. In the end it was the same protagonists that filled the top few place on the end-of-test scoresheet with Rea recording the fastest outright lap time over the two days - 1m 40.450. Redding was only 0.15s behind with Tom Sykes hot on his heals on the BMW S1000RR stressing that the main benefit of the test was being able to work through a full programme of testing, with the fast laptime being a bonus.
“It’s great to be here as I have never ridden the track so I’ve really enjoyed the layout of the whole circuit. We’ve had a good test schedule and worked through a lot of test items with the BMW S 1000 RR gathering some crucial information. It’s clear to see that the whole of the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team has been hard at work during this difficult period as we arrived here with a lot of ideas. It’s been working on different geometry settings, front and rear suspensions parameters, chassis options and we have certainly improved the electronic strategy. We are still exploring these set ups; we just need some time to put all this together.” The Pata Yamaha pairing of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Michael van der Mark arrived at Circuit de Barcelona with little track time under their belts since March. VD Mark had ridden a stock R1M at a track day in Assen whilst Razgatlioglu was riding mini bikes at the circuit in Turkey owned by former Supersport World Champion Kenan Sofuoglu. It therefore took a little time to get up to speed and by the end of the test they were still a little off the pace. Razgatlioglu was the quickest of the two but was over half a second
slower than Rea’s fastest time. The Phillip Island race one winner also suffered a high speed crash on day two, sidelining him for much of the afternoon. “I’m happy because I was able to ride the Yamaha R1 again! We tried many new parts and sometimes they didn’t work, but we found some new things that did make improvements. It’s not been a bad test at all, it was very important as it’s a new track for me and we are now ready for the race in Jerez. I only knew this circuit from video games, so it was good to get some laps in before we come back here later this year. The first day was quite difficult after so much time away from the bike, and I had a huge crash on day 2 and I’m lucky to have no injury. But even with this, we were quite fast and we improved the R1, so we can be happy.” The Honda squad were still a little off the pace as well and both Leon Haslam and Alvaro Bautista sat out much off the test due to the high track temperatures and also, according to Bautista, becasue they didn’t have many new parts to test. “We haven’t really tested anything new here - that’s something we’ll focus on next time - and so we’ve concentrated mainly on confidence,
and also on the electronics, working to find more traction through the corners and improve our braking on corner entry. Today we had to spend some time in the garage as the engineers had to analyse a lot of data to fix some issues we had, so we missed the chance to go for some fast lap times during the best part of the day.” he said. With testing all done we now move to Jerez and getting back to racing for real. Jerez is an interesting venue to come back to as the teams spend a lot of time testing there in between seasons, so they have huge amounts of data. What they won’t have factored in are the track temperatures. Southern Spain at the start of August always sees extremely high temperatures and it is something that none of the teams or tyre supplier Pirelli have any experience of at this track. The racing last year was very close, it was the Pata Yamaha team who offered a strong challenge to Kawasaki and Ducati with Van Der Mark winning race two. The remainder of the 2020 season will be run over six or seven events with a final schedule still to be confirmed. It will mean that every point will be valuable and we can expect the competition to be just as hot as the weather.
2020 WorldSBK Revised Calendar
a procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something, especially before it is taken into widespread use.
BSB
RESTART Words: Graeme Brown Pictures: Jamie Morris
August will see the start of the 2020 British Superbike Cahmpionship, four and a half months after it should have done. Like many motorsport series it has taken a monumental amount of work to put a calendar of events together and like all, the BSB schedule doesn’t bear any resemblance to what we had expected. The season will be run over six events starting at Donington Park on August 8-9. Each event will have three races, giving a total of 18 for the season. It will visit Snetterton, Silverstone, Oulton Park, a second event at Donington before a finale at Brands Hatch. Unlike previous years there will be no Showdown. This year it will be a straight shoot out from start to finish. Series organiser Stuart Higgs and his team found themselves up against it to try and get a series of races together. “This has been an incredibly challenging period, but the enthusiasm, commitment and passion from everyone involved in the championship has been outstanding. To reach the position of announcing a provisional calendar is a big step forward.”
“Naturally we are very disappointed that several of the traditional circuits have had to be omitted, which has been as a result of very detailed assessments of the operational, logistical and economic consequences pertinent to all circuits arising out of the COVID 19 pandemic. The firm message though is that we look forward to a full array of circuits returning in 2021. “We are optimistic that we will be able to welcome fans to BSB this season, enjoying these large outdoor circuit venues with plenty of room to socially distance. We are working with the circuits to agree protocols that meet all relevant guidance and will continue to do so as the guidance evolves over the coming weeks, with further announcements on this to follow.” “For now though, the focus is continuing to prepare the various protocols and operational detail to ensure the safety of everyone in the BSB community.” he commented. The one difference that BSB may benefit from, as Higgs points out, is the introduction of fans at the races.
Both WorldSBK and MotoAmerica are forging ahead with their events behind closed doors but in the UK Higgs is confident they allow fans trackside with all the suitable health and safety protocols in place. It has inevitably been a benefit that the BSB series is organised by MotorSport Vision Racing (MSVR) whose parent company MSV own a substantial number of the race circuits in the UK. It means that the staff and logistics of both companies are following the same agenda and the BSB series has come up with the best possible calendar for racing possible. Many of the teams had been in Spain in early March ahead of the expected start to the season but with everything being put on hold it has only been in the last few weeks that they have ventured back on track. There was a smattering of private tests around the country but MSVR organised an official test day at Donington in late July and photographer Jamie Morris was there to run his lenses over the runners and riders.
The Secret Of Success Is
ALL IN THE DETAIL Race machines are the pinnacle of motorcycle engineering. A successful team leaves nothing to chance and every fine detail of preparation receives maximum attention. Sometimes there are small and unique touches in the details. In this issue our photographers have searched out some of those details as the superbike teams around the world get back to racing. Pictures: Corey J Coulter, Jamie Morris, Graeme Brown
a competition between runners, horses, vehicles, etc. to see which is the fastest in covering a set course.
MotoAmerica Gets The Holeshot Words: Graeme Brown Pictures: Corey J Coulter
Whilst other superbike racing series were working out their schedules and Covid-19 safety procedures, MotoAmerica put everything in place and forged ahead with the start of their season at the end of May. Two races at Road America in Wisconsin in May and June got things underway. The series has taken a hit this year with the full on factory teams scaling back their operations and passing more of the logistics of the race programme to trusted privateer teams. Honda and Kawasaki had withdrawn in an official capacity over the last several years but this season sees the Yoshimura Suzuki team pull out with Toni Elias running in the M4 Ecstar Suzuki team. Reigning champion Cameron Beaubier has remained on a Yamaha R1 but the race programme has been taken over by the Attack Performance team, who ran with JD Beach last year. Beaubier has been joined by Jake Gagne, returning to MotoAmerica after a difficult year in WorldSBK (see SBKJournal Vol: 20.01)
The Monster Energy Attack Performance Yamaha team are the ones who have retained the closest resemblance to the former factory team and on that basis started the season as firm favourites to deliver Beaubier another title. Everything went to plan for them in the first round at Elkhart Lake with Beaubier dominating proceedings, taking a double win. A few weeks later, when the action returned to Road America, he made an uncharacteristic mistake and crashed out of race two. Long time rival Toni Elias also crashed in race two, although he remounted and finished seventh. It was Elias’ M4 Ecstar Suzuki team-mate Bobby Fong who benefited by scoring his first superbike win, a mere 0.5s ahead of Gagne. Beaubier leads the series after four races, nine points ahead of teammate Gagne, as the championship heads to Atlanta at the start of August.
Cameron Beaubier - Yamaha YZF-R1 MotoAmerica - Round 01 - Road America, Elkhart Lake WI May 29, 2020 Image: Corey J Coulter
SBK Journal is Published by Slipstream Media Ltd, PO Box 26532, Glasgow, G74 9FB. No part of this publication may be reproduced in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Slipstream Media Ltd. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the facts and the data contained in this publication, no responsibility can be accepted by Slipstream Media Ltd or any of the contributors for error or ommissions, or their consequences. ©Slipstream Media Ltd Photography: Graeme Brown Jamie Morris Corey J Coulter Images: ©geebeeimages ©jamiemorrisphotography @geocrashphotography (MotoAmerica) Design and Layout: Graeme Brown
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