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******DUCATI PULL OUT OF BSB DONNINGTON !!!!*******
Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round of Bennetts BSB
21 May 2008 - British Superbike - Superbike
Airwaves Ducati team manager Colin Wright has sensationally revealed that the outfit will not be racing at Donington Park after mid-season changes to the regulations on weight carrying.


After the sudden announcement by the MSVR/MCRCB to alter the technical regulations to the Superbike class in this year's British Superbike Championship, Airwaves Ducati has reacted by pulling their team out of this weekend's Donington Park round of the British Superbike Championship.


The rule change, which increases the minimum weight of the twin cylinder Superbike by 10kg to 175kg has in the opinion of GSE Racing been made without any supporting performance related reason or prior consultation with the team, which in their opinion is another clear demonstration of the lack of communication between the race organisers and teams.


Airwaves Team Manager Colin Wright told MCN: "We won't be going to Donington this weekend. The race organizers have imposed this penalty without any supporting evidence. There has been concerns about the safety of other bikes and reliability, but adding 10kg of weight to our bikes effectively four days before a race weekend means we can't do any testing and for safety reasons we are going to withdraw. I don't know what MSVR will do as we may have broken the conditions of the championship by not attending and be kicked out. But Ducati hasn't even tested the 1098R with an added 10kg either. We are prepared to go along with the new regulation as long as we get time to test with it. From tomorrow onwards the team and myself will look into how we can add this extra weight, but for us Donington isn't going to happen.
"

Team Principal Darrell Healey said: "I am absolutely astounded that the changes have been introduced after only three race meetings and four days before the next event at Donington Park. We, as a team, have spent tens of thousands of pounds testing and developing the 1098R based on what we thought were fixed regulations, but it is now clear that under Article A5 MSVR/MCRCB can clearly change the rules as and when they please! This is not a situation that either the team or I are comfortable with, and whilst little can be done for this year, I would certainly require absolute clarity on a fixed set of technical rules if we were to compete in any future British Superbike Championships.


"The bottom line is that we do not have the most competitive race bike performance wise, and that is clear for everybody to see, but both of our riders have been consistent over the first six races and that is why Shane leads the championship. Similarly, had our competitors achieved consistent race finishes, our lead would most probably be less than 5 points, which begs the question as to whether the organisers would have reached the same conclusion! However, the real joke here is that last October, we, on behalf of Ducati, requested the use of non-production pistons on safety grounds to use in this years BSB Championship, and that request was completely thrown out by ALL the teams racing four cylinder motorcycles. Now, just over six months later, those same teams are demanding rule changes to allow non standard engine parts to be fitted on safety grounds! I would suggest that their time would be better spent concentrating on producing fast, but reliable race bikes, rather than constantly whingeing to the race organisers to vary the technical rules.
"

"The bottom line is that we do not have the most competitive race bike performance wise, and that is clear for everybody to see, but both of our riders have been consistent over the first six races and that is why Shane leads the championship. Similarly, had our competitors achieved consistent race finishes, our lead would most probably be less than 5 points, which begs the question as to whether the organisers would have reached the same conclusion! However, the real joke here is that last October, we, on behalf of Ducati, requested the use of non-production pistons on safety grounds to use in this years BSB Championship, and that request was completely thrown out by ALL the teams racing four cylinder motorcycles. Now, just over six months later, those same teams are demanding rule changes to allow non standard engine parts to be fitted on safety grounds! I would suggest that their time would be better spent concentrating on producing fast, but reliable race bikes, rather than constantly whingeing to the race organisers to vary the technical rules.


couldnt agree more,its amazing how the unrelaible ducatis are being consistent at wsb and bsb levels were the normally always reliable japs are breaking down. i dont see why a weight gain should have been placed,the racings been good but is it shakeys fault that haslams had a mechanical and broke down,harris hasnt finished a race,cructhlows had 2 crashes(hell he even won last time out with a dislocated ankle),sykes hasnt even got a race winning bike underneath him and now rizla want aftermarket pistons. i was speaking to a hardcore rizla fan at mallory on friday and he mentioned the weight penalty and how unfair it was,which was quite a suprise really

it'll be interesting to see if airwaves have turned up,think i'll check crash.net now before i leave as theres no point going if the championship leaders not going to be there

Just this minute found out that That news is 4 days old and airways are at donnington this weekend

The decision was changed, I think the night after Ducati's response. I think they ended up with a 2kg Penalty for Race, and 7kg for Qualifying/Practice. Not 100%, just what I remember from the radio.

I'm guessing Ducati are happy enough now anyway, seeing as Shakey blew them away today.

I'm guessing Ducati are happy enough now anyway, seeing as Shakey blew them away today.


Too right . Bring it on . Roll on tom

The question is why penalise Ducati's skilled engineering to make there bike fast within the rules. By doing this the officials are only making ducati's want to be in bsb smaller. Come on surely it should be all the jap teams who should be looking at the drawing board to get a bike as fast as ducati within the rules.

But is the Ducati fair?

Ducati have their race bike based on the 1098R- a £25k limited run roadbike which, apparantly Ducati have had to pre register to meet homologation rules. The others are based on £9k roadbikes. (I'm sure Deej will come back on this!)

I'm not a big Ducati fan but I'm not anti Ducati. I think Byrne is one of the best riders there but, as in WSB, the Ducati's do appear to have something extra. WSB have guidelines written down about bringing in changes mid season- this seems to be where the BSB rule makers seem to have messed. I personally think they should've adopted full WSB rules/ regs which would have saved all this hassle.

I'm sure people will comment on this.

If its wet tomorrow, I'm tipping Rutter for the win. And watch out for Gary Mason rid James Buckinghams bike in the cup.

You will prob see Buckingham is quiting

Found out last week

Yeah, he is part of the pit crew now.

its a big suprise to see ducati reliable in both wsb and bsb,thats the main difference this season,im sure the jap bikes will get there soon seeming they were the ones wanting the new regs for this year.

i think the big difference that ducati have is that they have 2 world class riders onboard their bikes in shakey and bayliss,their team mates are nowhere on the same spec bike and tyres

yes,ducati are running the 1098r special but its a ploy theyve done for about 15years so its nothing new is it and as for pre regestering its not exactly a new thing either especially in the bike or car world where its needed to meet consumer/manufacturer demand. if they are pre registered it might mean a few cheaper R's out there somewhere. did yamaha not build a r1 sp a few years ago that was bought up by all the superstock racers as it had full ohlins and brembo as std over the stock r1 and was raced very successfully at different levels

did people complain the petrons never met homologation rules, no as it never won. the aprillia was a winner but wasnt the stock £9k bike either

buckingham wasnt guaranteed a ride this year as ian wasnt overly impressed with his attitude or level of riding last year and was looking at other options for this year but couldnt offer anything until they had the bikes sorted,which was always going to be a issue with the difference in rules between bsb and wsb as stobart werent too keen to build a wsbk bike and then a bsb spec bike for bucky.

mattr6 wrote:But is the Ducati fair?

Ducati have their race bike based on the 1098R- a £25k limited run roadbike which, apparantly Ducati have had to pre register to meet homologation rules. The others are based on £9k roadbikes. (I'm sure Deej will come back on this!)

What stops yamaha or anyone else doing the same thing?

Banditmax wrote:

mattr6 wrote:But is the Ducati fair?

Ducati have their race bike based on the 1098R- a £25k limited run roadbike which, apparantly Ducati have had to pre register to meet homologation rules. The others are based on £9k roadbikes. (I'm sure Deej will come back on this!)

What stops yamaha or anyone else doing the same thing?

Nothing, Honda's RC30/45 was a similar thing. I do think Ducati tend to get their way quite often with the rules, before it was 750 IL4's vs 1000cc Vtwins, now its 1000cc IL4s vs 1200cc Vtwins, both times its Ducati with the upper hand. Give it a few years and Honda etc will make a big Vtwin and probably beat Ducati at its own game.

It wasnt like the 999 was struggling that much last year, their excuse was they had to tune them so much to keep up so costs were high... if thats the case they should just make a 1000cc IL4 and not force everyone to change the rules around them Look at MotoGP, they run a V4 as do most (I wonder what cc V4 would be allowed in WSB/BSB?)

think its a 1000cc for the v4 as the rc30 was a 750 and the new aprillia is a 1000cc v4 and should be a hell of a bit of kit

just been reading about this on gixerjunkies and thought they'd be slagging off ducati but instead theyve turned the arguement against honda and are blaming them for it.

did motogp not go too 800cc on hondas say so ??

At the end of the day Honda has most money and they can use that to get whatever they want. The whole series can't afford the loss of a major competitor such as Honda. The cc's vs engine layout is in my opinion a very odd ruling. They may as well have either you only use one engine layout or you can only have one size cc limit. Because technology has advanced so much that the specific power acheivable from different layouts is very similar.

when do we start the question about traction control and electrictronic gadgets, should they only be used on bsb/wsbk bikes that have them fitted as a standard and not those that add them afterwards,surely thats more of a performance enhancing part than a aftermarket piston ?