Pit Shadow
• Quite recently there was an announcement from the BSB organisers saying they were going to allow Jakub Smrz's Panigale to use special pistons from Ducati's super expensive Superleggera to eke out a bit more performance, making it a bit more competitive. Now then, quite a few forum heroes and so forth have cried foul, saying it's not fair that Ducati gets special dispensation, regardless of the fact the perk will be removed if they start winning too many races. Well, I hate to burst a lot of bubbles here, but had Stuart Higgs and the BSB massive not made tweaks here and there to their rules, there would only be about three manufacturers on the grid. Both Yamaha and Honda had to have some small concessions made for the R1 and Fireblade to be in with a shout, and even then only with national importer backing. Ask yourself this – now the top Honda squad has pulled out for 2014, how many other 'Blades are there in BSB? One or two, yes, but how are they doing? You must look no further than superstock championships to get a real idea of which bikes are competitive out of the crate. How many R1s, Fireblades or GSX-Rs do you see rolling around? None to very, very few. The question you need to ask yourself when it comes to BSB is what would you rather see? Rules being stuck to like glue, or a varied grid of different makes taking chunks out of one another? I know what I prefer, so I'm not too fussed that small rule changes like that which allows Smrz a bit of extra oomph are passed. I want the variety out there and it's not like one bike gets too much of an advantage, is it? Higgs and Co. are very adept at making sure everything stays within a reasonable variance, and I applaud them for that fact. As FB has also alluded to this month, I'm told there's already a huge amount of green machines in the BSB paddock. It's not Kawasaki's fault they have the best product out there, it's for everyone else to pull their finger out and update their bikes accordingly, then MSVR wouldn't have to constantly massage their own rules. Not too often, at any rate. There's a danger Dorna's meddling in WSB will see something hideous like that happening, as why would any team or manufacturer pour money down the drain on a bike which isn't good enough out of the box? Scott Smart, my good man, you've a lot on your plate to ensure this doesn't happen, especially seeing as how the current WSB rule book allows all makes a fair crack at the whip. I'll be watching that one closely. Lastly, I had to laugh in Argentina, listening to press room know-it-alls spouting how Marc Marquez couldn't use his braking on the edge on the front tyre technique (that nobody else can), due to the track, therefore losing his big advantage. Didn't bother him, did it? He just rode a little more traditionally and still made everyone look completely stupid. I do wonder how long it'll take for us to get bored of it, but for the moment, I can't get enough of the kid!