Just been reading,
http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/...?article=37510
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And when we consulted with the manufacturers who have been paying the
bills and making up the support for this sport, and that has primarily
been the four Japanese manufacturers, they did not want World Superbike
rules and made it clear.
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I assume what he means is the SBK teams rather than the Japanese
manufacturers. And even then I find it surprising. In fact, I have a
hard time believing it. Much, much more likely is that the manufacturers
said, just leave the rules untouched for 2009 so we can go racing with
what we have. And he's just spinning the story.
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RW: And that leads us to the homologation of the Buell 1125RR. Did Erik
Buell originally request to homologate just a kit of parts to make the
1125R more competitive in American Superbike?
RE: Yes, he did. He sent a list of parts he thought were necessary to
get that bike up to speed, and frankly it was a list I couldn’t allow
our guys to approve. Then the question came up was there anyway we can
take this motorcycle, which we’re currently offering to the public,
and make it competitive. And I said, ‘Yes, if you want to put together
a race kit and you install it and you’ll support it in terms of
selling those same pieces to anybody who wants to buy one and if
you’ll race it, yes, we’ll take a look at homologating a complete
motorcycle.’
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So Buell wants to homologate parts that would have broken the rule book.
The AMA rightly throw them out. But put the same parts on a "production"
racer and suddenly they become legal. Except now he's calling it a
pre-installed "race kit". Well either those parts are legal or they're
not. It shouldn't make any difference whether they are supplied as
parts, as a race kit or as a ready to race package. Makes you wonder how
many of these RRs Buell has to produce. And now apparently we're back to
homologation specials. If American Honda commissioned Ten Kate to
produce 20 replicas of their WSB bike, it would apparently be legal in
the AMA. Or at least if it wasn't, the AMA would be shown to have double
standards. Oh... wait...
Does anyone believe or trust anything this guy says any more?
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