MUST-WATCH RACING
FIM SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
I wouldn’t have given it credit to have achieved this when the class was announced last year, but Supersport 300 is fast becoming a ‘must-watch’ part of a WSB weekend. My initial concerns with it were quite simply down to the base machines themselves, if I’m being brutally honest. Today’s A2 machines, while finally starting to show some promise on the production front, I’ve never thought of as a true replacement for what came before – back when I was of (then) A2 age. I’m talking about two-strokes of course, mainly, like Suz uki’s RG V, K awasaki’s K R-1 line or Aprilia’s RS2 5 0. And then let’s not forget exquisite little runners like H onda’s V4 NC 30, or K awasaki’s iconic Z X R400, never mind the imported Y amaha FZ R400, and so on.
C ompare any of those bikes to what is available now, and you’d swear blind that ‘now’ should be 30 years ago, not the other way around. G P apeing chassis sporting multiple possible adjustments, super trick two and four-stroke engines, styling right off the race track – we were spoiled rotten.
The A2 bikes that Supersport 300 is comprised of appear to be some form of regression in technology terms – spindly chassis, basic suspension and small, cheap engines – some of which essentially hark back to cheap-as-chips four-stroke commuters from as far back as when we last had it really good in this sector. H owever, racing often improves the breed, and as the racing in WSS 300 is, frankly, utterly bonkers, I do have some hope.
That’s only ‘hope’ though, especially given all of the controversial performance balancing that’s been going on this season, the latest bout being to stick around 10kg on every K awasaki 400 in the field for being too fast. Much like WSB, it seems a crime of sorts to punish a manufacturer for doing a good job. But my hope is that as this class grows in popularity (they’re springing up everywhere on the national scene), manufacturers will feel obliged to make the base machine better, therefore making owning one an enticing proposition, like it used to be.
Okay, performance balancing so the worst machine on the grid still has a chance may stop some from putting a lot of effort in, but many will, and that makes me feel some sort of relief for the future. But, the racing? I certainly can’t complain about that!
Even those two wins when Ana C arrasco vanished into the distance were still great to watch. Firstly to see a girl making all the lads seem a little silly, in both qualifying and the races, but also the carnage going on behind her beggared belief. It’s a right mad house, if you haven’t watched it, please do! Ana did have a slight speed advantage, prior to the official weight gain, but she was still in the thick of things at that very round, Brno, before the race was red flagged.
She does have another interesting advantage however, which is how she rides the bike. A lot of the grid kids are (understandably) emulating Marquez et al, elbow down on these little (yet heavy) machines, right on the edge of the tyre. Ana is far more conservative, only leaning as much as she needs to which in theory should save the edge of her tyres for when she really needs them. She’s already shown great end of race pace and in a class of miniscule advantages often making the difference, that could serve her well for her title aspirations later down the line. She’s got a lot of craz y kids to beat first though!