Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Give us your views on the world of Superbikes
Post Reply
User avatar
cpjw
Direct Access
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2006 8:50 am
Current Ride: VFR800
Location: Near Ellon

Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by cpjw »

British Superbike Championship leaders Airwaves Ducati will not be racing at Donington Park for round four of the season.

Team Owner Darrell Healey has withdrawn the team who lead both the riders and teams standings, due to a safety concern with the recently added regulation. It was announced on Monday that anyone running V-twin machinery in BSB will have to carry a minimum weight of 175kg, instead of 165kg as set out at the beginning of the season.

The move to hit the Ducati’s with a weight penalty came as a result of four-cylinder teams suggesting they were over-stretching the standard engine parts of their bikes to keep with the Italian machines.

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."
More on MCN

Poop :(
User avatar
Zathos
Mr Magpie
Posts: 3161
Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2003 10:46 pm
Current Ride: Aprilia Tuono Factory R
Location: Everywhere & Nowhere

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by Zathos »

A well thought out decision there :roll

I have never been a fan of the twins being allowed additional cc, but these decisions should be taken in consultation and agreed pre season. Once you agree the terms stick to em :deal

Why not use sucess balast in a similar way to the touring cars, that would keep the racing close.
User avatar
kingrib
Direct Access
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:02 pm
Current Ride: 02 R1, 01 XJR1300, 78 Z650, 78 GS1000, 77 XS500
Location: Crimond, Aberdeenshire

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by kingrib »

well well, what a surprise, ducrapi throw their toys out of the pram when it dosnt go their way,

i was under the impression that there was a stipulation in this years rules that if the v twins were running away with it, they would review things and there would be some sort of weight penalty added (maybe this is just in wsb) but the fact remains that (yet again!!!!) Ducati make an arse of whatever race series they are competing in, "if we cant win,we're not playing"

the rules should be 1000cc, come and race, if your bike wont win (for whatever reason) either sod off and dont race or make a bike that will be competetive, dont mess about arguing you need extra cc's, or less weight, there should be one set of rules and thats it,

i for one am glad they are not racing at donnington, fed up watching them bending the rules etc etc in order to win stuff,

i'm sure some of you will be along to offer support to the vtwin argument, but in my book the racing will be better without them.
User avatar
Coddy
Chavtastic!
Posts: 920
Joined: Sat May 21, 2005 2:54 am
Current Ride: 2011 Ecosse Arr Waan SP Special.
Location: I did see the speed limit officer, i just didn't see you....

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by Coddy »

In WSB, the restrictions that are going to be imposed are in the form of Air Restrictors instead of weight penalties.

Dunno why BSB haven't gone the same way.
User avatar
al
Mass Debater
Posts: 4768
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2001 1:00 am
Current Ride: Space Hopper
Location: Uranus
Contact:

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by al »

kingrib wrote:the rules should be 1000cc, come and race, if your bike wont win (for whatever reason) either sod off and dont race or make a bike that will be competetive, dont mess about arguing you need extra cc's, or less weight, there should be one set of rules and thats it,
MotoGP has a capacity limit regardless of engine configuration so why not Superbikes as well??

I'm sure I read somewhere that Ducati are increasing the production run of the desmosedici to over 1000 units so I guess that makes it eligible for Superbike Racing??

Big Kneed Al (master of the emergency stop & "stand up" comedian).
User avatar
kingrib
Direct Access
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:02 pm
Current Ride: 02 R1, 01 XJR1300, 78 Z650, 78 GS1000, 77 XS500
Location: Crimond, Aberdeenshire

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by kingrib »

as well as the air flow restrictors,the wsb weight penalty is 5kg's rather than the 10kg's that bsb are imposing on the vtwins

and yes Big Kneed Al (master of the emergency stop & "stand up" comedian), why dont they just make more of their desmosedici thing and be done with it
Tones
Knee Flapper
Posts: 276
Joined: Wed May 16, 2007 5:01 pm
Current Ride: Duc ST4
Location: Aberdeen

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by Tones »

There goes my points this weekend then :angryfire
User avatar
Gazza
I don't believe it!
Posts: 2475
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2001 1:00 am
Current Ride: KTM 690 Duke
Location: Sconny Botland

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by Gazza »

kingrib wrote:well well, what a surprise, ducrapi throw their toys out of the pram when it dosnt go their way,

i was under the impression that there was a stipulation in this years rules that if the v twins were running away with it, they would review things and there would be some sort of weight penalty added (maybe this is just in wsb) but the fact remains that (yet again!!!!) Ducati make an arse of whatever race series they are competing in, "if we cant win,we're not playing"

the rules should be 1000cc, come and race, if your bike wont win (for whatever reason) either sod off and dont race or make a bike that will be competetive, dont mess about arguing you need extra cc's, or less weight, there should be one set of rules and thats it,

i for one am glad they are not racing at donnington, fed up watching them bending the rules etc etc in order to win stuff,

i'm sure some of you will be along to offer support to the vtwin argument, but in my book the racing will be better without them.
Try thinking out of the box.

Whilst you may be right about the rules (not according to Colin Wright btw), remember that the reason Ducati 'seems' to be running away with it is because all the other top riders keep falling off or blowing up. Not conclusively anything to do with the bike. For example, hgad Cal Crutchlow finished all his races, the difference would be only 4 points....hardly a runaway. More results are required to demonstrate any real advantage and even so, giving notice to Ducati immediately before a race weekend is not reasonable. Notably, where all the other teams demanded and ensured that Ducati use standard pistons for the season, some are now complainng that they want race pistons for themselves.
Other than Troy Bayliss, WSB is domineered by fours, not twins (5 out of the top six). This would suggest that the unfair advantage is Troy, not the bike.

As for controlling a series on cc 'just because that's the way it's always been', that's silly. Historically, the more cc's the more power. So that's where the idea comes from. However, it's quite obvious that more cylinders also offer more power. IMHO, the best racing comes from equally match power, not necessarily cc. A number of cylinders restriction has also been applied to GP racing for the same reason. Similarly for F1.

If we're going to have a cc limit, then there should equally be a cylinder limit to even out the power advantage. Otherwise it's uneven racing.
User avatar
kingrib
Direct Access
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:02 pm
Current Ride: 02 R1, 01 XJR1300, 78 Z650, 78 GS1000, 77 XS500
Location: Crimond, Aberdeenshire

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by kingrib »

at the brands round of bsb, in one of the races(cant remember which) shakey had a dodgy start/run off the track/incident(again cant remember which) but even before the others had taken each other out/crashed etc etc he was catching them hand over fist each lap-hardly indicative of bikes which are supposedly evenly matched, as for more results needed, i am sure i read somewhere that it was always going to be after 3 rounds of the championship they would take stock of things and decide on any action then,

on the piston front, the japs want to use racing pistons because of their obvious strength/longevity/lightness over standard as the playing field is not level as the dukes have the advantage in the first place, only after a few races could they have found this out,they are now the ones at the far reaches of the development, they cant get any more power with standard-yet the duke still beats them.

anyway, everyone has an opinion on it, i reckon they should all race bikes that are far more like what you can buy out of the crate, leave the development of bikes to the prototype motogp guys, or have more one make race series like the old pro am LC racing.

4 cylinder 1000cc bikes,that (in my opinion) should be the rules.
Tones
Knee Flapper
Posts: 276
Joined: Wed May 16, 2007 5:01 pm
Current Ride: Duc ST4
Location: Aberdeen

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by Tones »

Didn't MCN run an article comparing wins over the past couple of years cause everyone was complaining about the dukes, worked out almost even between Yamaha, Honda and Ducati didn't it?
User avatar
Gazza
I don't believe it!
Posts: 2475
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2001 1:00 am
Current Ride: KTM 690 Duke
Location: Sconny Botland

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by Gazza »

kingrib wrote:at the brands round of bsb, in one of the races(cant remember which) shakey had a dodgy start/run off the track/incident(again cant remember which) but even before the others had taken each other out/crashed etc etc he was catching them hand over fist each lap-hardly indicative of bikes which are supposedly evenly matched, as for more results needed,
I think you'll find Shakey won the first race and Cal won the second race. Shakey finished the second race, so what happened to his hand-over-fist advantage?
User avatar
kingrib
Direct Access
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:02 pm
Current Ride: 02 R1, 01 XJR1300, 78 Z650, 78 GS1000, 77 XS500
Location: Crimond, Aberdeenshire

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by kingrib »

he was catching them hand over fist each lap-hardly indicative of bikes which are supposedly evenly matched,
User avatar
Gazza
I don't believe it!
Posts: 2475
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2001 1:00 am
Current Ride: KTM 690 Duke
Location: Sconny Botland

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by Gazza »

kingrib wrote:he was catching them hand over fist each lap-hardly indicative of bikes which are supposedly evenly matched,
Brands Hatch

In race one, he was sixth after lap one and third by lap three with the gap to the leader (Crutchlow) already less than a second. Despite a 'bad start' he was never more than 1.4 seconds from the front and won the race by just under 1.9 seconds. So a total gain of 3.3 seconds over 20 laps is hardly a hand-over-fist performance difference. It's what I'd call racing. Brands is also Shakey's local circuit.

In the second race, he was overtaken by Tom Sykes whilst in second place on lap 16. Had Sykes finished, then he would have likely come in third.


Outlon Park

Shakey won race one by just 0.2 secs over Haslam (fastest lap Crutchlow) and race 2 by 4 secs over Ellison (Crutchlow and Sykes DNF)


Thruxton

Shakey won race one by 2 secs over Crutchlow. Race 2, Crutchlow won by 2 seconds over Shakey. Haslam DNF.


It's all about consistency and not falling off.

There's no hand over fist advantage that could justify a penalty. The two Ducati riders have simply finished every race.

If you used the WSB system to tally up points (ignoring DNF's and assuming overall performance), Shakey would have a lead of 2.17 points.
User avatar
cpjw
Direct Access
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2006 8:50 am
Current Ride: VFR800
Location: Near Ellon

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by cpjw »

User avatar
Coddy
Chavtastic!
Posts: 920
Joined: Sat May 21, 2005 2:54 am
Current Ride: 2011 Ecosse Arr Waan SP Special.
Location: I did see the speed limit officer, i just didn't see you....

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by Coddy »

Still don't think adding weight is the right decision, whether 10kgs or 5kgs.

Adding weight affects braking, which at the end of the day should be a level playing field between 2-3-4 cylinder bikes.

They should be fitting air restrictors to the Ducatis if they think they need to be pegged back.
Its exactly the same for the 4 cylinder bikes. If they were nailing the 2 cylinder bikes, then the rules were that the 4 cylinder bikes would be fitted with tighter air restrictors.

Tighter air restrictions is what will be happening to the Ducatis after round 6 of WSB.

Still don't think that Ducati should have been allowed to run 1200cc bikes, when at the time, you couldn't buy a 1200cc 1098. They should have run the 1100cc engines. They still have not sold the required 100 bikes to allow the 1200cc engines to be run, which is why they are pre registering upto 20 1098R.
Tones
Knee Flapper
Posts: 276
Joined: Wed May 16, 2007 5:01 pm
Current Ride: Duc ST4
Location: Aberdeen

Re: Airwaves Ducati pull out of Donington Park round

Post by Tones »

Coddy wrote:They should be fitting air restrictors to the Ducatis if they think they need to be pegged back.
Totally agree with that Coddy :2up
Post Reply