ROUND 6/JUNE 9, 2013
ALGARVE CIRCUIT/PORTIMAO, PORTUGAL
WORLD SUPERBIKE
P90
WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
EXCEPTIONAL ELECTRONICS
In the current World Superbike paddock – and
certainly in a cost-reduced future - the most expensive
power to have will be brainpower. Ask anybody in the
paddock who runs a team - however high or however
humble – and the biggest increase in costs they have
seen in technology in the past 10 years are the electronics experts who have to look after the increasingly
complex engine management, rider aid and every
other kind of non-mechanical control systems on a
modern Superbike.
Superbikes may be way behind MotoGP in electronics, but for a championship where privateers can
build a bike for anything between 60,000 Euros and
quarter of a million for the metal and composite parts,
the know-how behind the digital veil is the real uncontrollable cost.
Limiting spending in suspension, engine numbers
or brake parts, is a countable, mathematical way to
reduce budgets, but the black boxes of electronics
are just that - boxes with chips therein.
It is the software, and the clever people who manipulate it properly, that cost a lot and cannot be easily
controlled.
And as many have found out, corners cannot be
cut with electronics, as some who have tried to use
alternative sensors to the best, or non-recommended
ones for their systems have found out. DIY Software
programming? Dream on.
And one more thing is clear - the more data you can
record and look at after sessions and tests, the more
people who really know what this data means, and
how to program in improvements, are required.
On the weekend that the FIM and Dorna said they
had agreed on the broad-stroke technical rules for the
future, it seems they have given up persuading the
manufacturers to put a cap on electronics, for the time
being at least, simply because they will be unable to
police it.
Sykes (right) and Guintoli
(left) spray the bubbly after
race one.
engine intake.
Leon Haslam gamely tried to
race again and did so in race
one but lasted nine laps before
he had to give up with worn out
muscles not only in his legs but
also his torso and arms.
In the championship, Guintoli
is now a useful 28 points ahead
RACE ONE
1. Marco Melandri (BMW)
2. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia)
3. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
4. Leon Camier (Suzuki)
5. Loris Baz (Kawasaki)
6. Chaz Davies (BMW)
7. Michel Fabrizio (Aprilia)
8. Jules Cluzel (Suzuki)
9. Carlos Checa (Ducati)
10. Federico Sandi (Kawasaki)
of Sykes; Laverty was a master
of damage limitation to be only
39 points behind and Melandri
would have been much closer to
the lead than the 57 points he is
behind Sylvain, but for race two's
result.
Davies is fifth on 133 points
with Baz sixth on 119.
CN
RACE TWO
1. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia)
2. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia)
3. Jonathan Rea (Honda)
4. Loris Baz (Kawasaki)
5. Chaz Davies (BMW)
6. Carlos Checa (Ducati)
7. Jules Cluzel (Suzuki)
8. Ayrton Badovini (Ducati)
9. Davide Giugliano (Aprilia)
10. Michel Fabrizio (Aprilia)
