Overnight Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta debriefed the agreement reached to propose two Grands Prix and a WorldSBK round at Jerez in July and August, as well as updates on when we may expect to get a glimpse at an updated calendar.
“Yesterday we had a meeting, the Vice President of the Regional Government of Andalusia, the Mayor of Jerez and I, and agreed the conditions to propose holding two MotoGP events and one Superbike event there, on the 19th and 26th of July and the first weekend of August, respectively.
“We agreed the conditions and how we could run that, and our idea is to propose to the Spanish government the possibility to do these events following a protocol we are creating.
“We are waiting for the official answer from the Spanish government regarding that matter. We think it’s something where we’ll be in connection with them next week following different meetings, and then finally we’ll know if this is enough to make it possible to have these Grands Prix at that time.
“We will start to talk as a new situation is coming to Spain, and then next week we will start the conversations about hosting the Grands Prix.”
Is there the possibility of holding a test at the venue before the first race? For all three categories?
“Yes. Our proposal is to have a test on the Wednesday before the first weekend.
“We are going through similar procedures with the governments in each country we want to go to, but that’s separate and we think maybe by the first part of June we can propose a calendar. Definitively. We’re looking at different dates, but we’re also waiting for the F1 calendar – and it will be difficult because it’s a short time and there will be many events – to try and avoid clashes with Formula 1.”
What about WorldSBK? What’s the situation?
“We are still discussing it. We have confirmation from Jerez that it’s possible to do it there. We don’t know exactly, Superbike is talking with different countries to know exactly what are the possibilities, and obviously we will do the same as MotoGP: when we know the situation exactly and the calendars and the possibilities to hold events in different countries, we will announce the new calendar. In the agreement with the government of Andalucia and the city of Jerez we include one WorldSBK race weekend.”
The plan in Jerez is to have the WorldSBK round after the Grands Prix. Is that something that could be the same going forward at other circuits or is it just for Jerez?
“In WorldSBK, we have the same situation as MotoGP: the first thing is to have permission to do races and then we can see which races can be held, in the days before… everything is open, as in MotoGP, but we have the plan to start as soon as possible and we believe this will be in the middle or end of July in Europe. There is the Superbike event in Argentina, we need to look at that but it’s still our plan to have more or less the same schedule – in terms of confirmation – as we do in MotoGP, so we think by the beginning of June we will have a clearer picture of what we can do with both.”
2014 – Last year at Honda, drama in testing, leading championship at Imola, Akiyoshi recovering the bike with a broken leg, signing for KRT, throwing crumpets at Tom’s motorhome, and signing of in Qatar. Thanks Ten Kate! #robmacmemories
Dorna has put a proposal forward to the Spanish authorities to run a back to back MotoGP double-header weekend at Jerez on the weekend of July 19th and July 26th, immediately followed by a World Superbike Championship the following weekend of August 2nd.
Once authorisation from the Spanish government has been given, the three events will be proposed to the FIM for inclusion on their respective calendars.
MotoGP tentatively scheduled new Jerez kick-off
The first MotoGP event would be the Grand Prix of Spain, becoming the season opener for the MotoGP class, and the second would be the Grand Prix of Andalusia.
The 2020 Motul FIM Superbike World Championship’s Spanish Round at Jerez would then take place from the 31st of July to 2nd August. Immediately following the two consecutive MotoGP World Championship events at the circuit.
Jerez WorldSBK 2019
The heat at that time of year in Spain can be stifling and those high temperatures will make tyre selection and management even more critical than ever. Grip might be very hard to come by…
2011 – New stickers but not like Colin’s, free helicopter ride, wishing my season would end, poor Alex replacing me, special RBW dispensation and a few wins!
Not long after the third and final 22-lap race of the 2020 Superbike World Championship opening weekend at Phillip Island had come to its conclusion, in what had been a full-on drag race to the line that witnessed Alex Lowes taking the measure of his new Kawasaki team-mate and five-time WSBK world champion Jonathan Rea by just 0.037s, Rea thought a few things through.
Jonathan Rea
“With Alex, it’s always a fresh experience when you have a new team-mate coming into the team,” offered Rea of his Kawasaki Racing Team team-mate for 2020 and beyond. “I think Alex is quite easy to get on with and he’s showing good potential and now he’s on one of the best bikes and on one of the best teams in the paddock.”
Alex Lowes beat Jonathan Rea to the chequered flag in the third race of the Phillip Island WorldSBK season opener – Image by Rob Mott
New to the Kawasaki Racing Team after six years of lining up for both Suzuki and Yamaha, and with previously only one race win coming his way at Brno in 2018, 29 year-old Lowes who placed a fighting third to rea and Alvaro Bautista in the 2019 WSBK title brawl, now goes to the starting grid armed with a works Kawasaki ZX-10RR.
Alex Lowes – Kawasaki Racing Team WSBK 2020
And it is with that ZX-10RR that Lowes will fight team-mate and, arguably, the greatest WSBK racer who ever existed, Rea with. First, though, and like everyone else who might be scanning their eyes upon this piece, he’ll need to ride out the pandemic clampdown.
“Yeah, obviously, we’re in lockdown in England, so my wife Corinne and I leave the house for exercise or to go to the supermarket to get food, so we’re not doing too much,” said Lowes from his home in England. “It’s been four weeks like this. It’s a little bit of an inconvenience, but obviously we have to do it to try and get on top of the virus. Yeah, there is nothing to do. Obviously, we haven’t been able to ride since Australia. We can go and do some running and cycling outside in England, but it’s a little bit boring, really, because we’re itching to get back on the bike, but it is the same for everybody. We just have to be as positive as we can.”
Alex Lowes got to spray the bubbly on the podium at Phillip Island – GeeBee Image
Recently the organisers of the WSBK mooted that they will move forward, all systems go, with the aim of firing the season back up the first weekend in July at Donington Park in England. Having a date to hit, any sort of date, is music to Lowes’ ears, yet most everything is still in’ to be determined’ mode.
“Yeah, because you’re always working towards something, but at the minute, we don’t know if it’s going to be a few weeks or a few months,” Lowes explained. “We don’t really have that information. That’s always the hardest thing – when you’ve got no deadline or no plan or something you need to get done. Like in school when you get homework and it is due on Friday. Yeah, you might do it later, but at least you know you need to do it. At this minute and with our racing, we just don’t know.
“I’ve stayed in close contact with the team,” continued Lowes. “We speak once or twice a week on FaceTime with a big group chat, which has been quite good. We’ve been able to speak and to see how everyone is getting on. Obviously, we’ve got mechanics in Spain and Italy. Our crew chief is in Holland and we have other guys working, so we’re spread around Europe and we’ve been catching up and I’m trying to see how the situation is in each different country, but it has been nice to see them going and obviously it would be nice to see them in person as soon as possible.”
Alex Lowes’ crew chief is Belgian Marcel Duinker
Meanwhile in England, Lowes’ brother Sam is also holding station in beating back the COVID-19 darkness and it is there that Alex is keeping an eye on his twin brother and Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc DVS Moto2 racer Sam.
“Yeah, my brother is actually living really close now,” pointed out Lowes. “He lives near the Isle of Man, so he’s just around the corner from me. I’ve spoken with Michel Van Der Mark a few times as we were fairly close after three years together at Yamaha as team-mates and we were friends, as well. After that, no, not really. I’ve just been sort of enjoying some time at home and spending some time with the wife. We’d certainly rather be getting out doing some things, but I think we have another three weeks in lockdown here in England. We still have to be patient.”
Lowes on the grid at Phillip Island – GeeBee Image
Lowes has also been working together, on and off the racetracks, with the sensational Jonathan Rea, a racer going after his sixth straight WSBK title.
“I’ve always gotten on with Johnny well and you don’t need to say anything about his results as he’s a guy to beat, it’s been really nice. The team is fantastic and I really enjoy the team and if Johnny and I get on, it makes it a lot easier and better for everybody, so the dynamics with the team have been really good. It’s been a lot of fun so far.”
Kawasaki Racing Team WSBK 2020
169 races, 22 podium finishes and two wins into his WSBK career, Lowes talked about the new reality of his racing surroundings, the Kawasaki Racing Team member quite enthused by his team and their way of doing thing.
“Yeah, definitely, Eric, it has been an eye opener for me with how well them guys do things and I definitely feel like all of that is going to help me make a good step forward with my riding and my results,” said Lowes. “Like I’ve said, it has been very positive and I’ve really enjoyed working with and getting to know all the guys, obviously Jonathan included. He does a lot of things really well, so I’m sure there is plenty that I can learn from him. Obviously, we’ve got a delayed start now, but the testing the first three months together have been really, really good.
“Even this winter, and even though I felt good on the bike, we didn’t have too good weather, so I didn’t get too many dry laps, so I feel like there is a lot more I can improve on with my relationship with the bike. I’m real confident with my decision with Kawasaki and I’m happy to be working with all the guys, and like I said, whether it is next month or two months or whenever the time is, I’m surely going to be at the front. That’s all you can ask for as a rider and it has given me a lot of motivation.”
Alex Lowes – TBG Image
All things – and all three races – considered, the season opening race weekend at Phillip Island went quite well for Alex Lowes and his ZX-10RR. Lowes was second by a mere 0.007 seconds to Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatliouglu in race one, fourth in the Tissot Superpole race to Rea on Sunday morning, and won the spectacular third and conclusive race in a straight-up dogfight with Rea chasing him hard all the way to the flag.
“Yeah, it went well. I felt good on the bike during all the winter testing. In Australia, I worked really hard during the test and on old tyres because there is something about tyres and being fast at the end of the race at Philip Island. For me, the homework paid off. Marcel, my crew chief, and I had a really good plan during the test, we work well together and it was just nice to get a couple of podiums and grab the first win early in the season and so I’ve got all of that off my back now and I can just enjoy it when we do get back to racing again. I’m just going to try and be as consistent as possible and want to fight for more wins every weekend. Yeah, Australia was fantastic and I couldn’t have asked for anything more from my first weekend with the new team.
“As far as how I saw the competition in Australia, we knew what the Ducati is if you look at what Bautista did last year. The Ducati guys are going to be strong. Honda coming back as a factory team is great and they’ve got a couple of strong riders. Van Der Mark I know him very well from over the last few years, so he is going to be strong as well as so is the entire Yamaha team. And Jonathan has always been on the Kawasaki and we have seen what he has done. The frustrating thing right now is that we are having some of the best racing that we’ve had in World Superbike and the closest competition so it is such a shame we can’t be out there every weekend putting on a show for all the fans because it is so much fun to be involved in World Superbike.”
KRT 1-2 in WorldSBK Race Two at Phillip Island – GeeBee Image
So Alex, can you do it? Can you ultimately win the WSBK World Championship?
“Yeah, that’s my goal and my dream and it’s one of the reasons I wanted to join the Kawasaki team. I wanted to go up against Jonathan on the same bike. Yeah, I believe I can be World Champion. I still have a lot to learn and a lot to improve, but with these guys around, I know I can do it. It’s going to be about being patient and understanding that it is still going to be my first year on the Kawasaki. Even if it ends up being a champion next year, I can’t expect too much. I want to be consistent and fight for wins wherever I can. The belief is there. The motivation is there. I’m just excited to get back and see the guys and get riding again, but right now we have to do the right thing and stay at home and that’s it! There’s not much else to say, really!”
Two decades ago Honda, so often kings of the multi-cylinder four-stroke racing world since the stunning arrival of several jewel-like Grand Prix machines in the 1960s, had realised that something truly new was required to stay in the important game of winning WorldSBK championships. Something new for Honda, at least.
In 2000 the biggest Japanese manufacturer of them all adopted a 1000cc V-twin engine configuration, the same basic format that their main WorldSBK rivals – Ducati – had been using to such great effect long before the WorldSBK party had officially started in 1988.
In reality, the Honda VTR1000SP1 was a very different design to the Desmodromic, 90° belt-driven ‘laid down L’ of the Ducati.
Honda RC51 VTR1000 SP-1
The reason for the birth of the Japanese twin-spar aluminium framed 90° V-twin was simple. Having won the Superbike Riders’ Championship with Fred Merkel and the RC30 (twice), then John Kocinski and the RC45 as recently as 1997, the writing was on the wall for the whole era of 750cc four-cylinders being competitive against bigger-bore twins. Even the title-winning Honda V-fours.
Aprilia, another Italian marque which competed against Honda in the smaller GP classes, had already jumped on the big V-twin bandwagon as they entered WorldSBK full of ambition in 1999. Even little Bimota had hybridized their small-production run Italian philosophy with a V-twin Suzuki engine for the 2000 WorldSBK season.
Honda RC51 VTR1000 SP-1
Despite all this V-twin momentum building up elsewhere it must have taken a degree of deep thought – even a corporate deep breath – before the go-ahead was given to abandon the much-loved V-four configuration Honda had made their own trademark for many years. Especially given that any racing version of the new road going V-twin would be an instant technical challenge against the prime exponents of the V-due art, Ducati.
Honda, however, has never been a company lacking ambition.
The new bike, the VTR1000SP1 (suffixed ‘W’ for the works bikes in WorldSBK), had a relatively upright single crank V-twin engine layout, four valve heads fed by two fuel injectors per cylinder. Engine capacity maxed out at 999cc, by regulation.
Philosophically radical it may have been but it was relatively conventional, aside from the roadbikes’ side mounted coolant radiators, brought to the front on the racebike. And it worked well from the very start.
Honda VTR1000 SP
New Zealander Aaron Slight, and the eventual double World Champion Colin Edwards, were the first to transition from fours to twins in Honda’s full HRC Castrol Honda team, based in the UK but very much a direct factory effort from Japan. With Showa suspension and Nissin brakes on the racebike, it was all very Japanese indeed.
Edwards, a Texan from head to toe, knew at that point in time Honda – or maybe anybody – probably needed a twin to win, based on at least one central truth in any form of motorsport.
“The old saying goes that there is no replacement for displacement, and that still stands true,” said Edwards, 20 years after he won the first of his two WorldSBK crowns. And it was not just a cubed route to success for the larger twin, it was also its very nature compared to a high-revving 750 four. “The thing with the twin was that it was like riding a Supersport bike,” remembers Edwards. “It had such easy, deliverable power. There was no ‘hit’ – you could do it in your sleep. It was such an easy bike to ride compared to the four-cylinders.”
Colin Edwards and the VTR-SP RC51 Honda
Edwards had been a convert to 1000cc twins before he even got one of his own, even in his pre-RC45 V-four days it seems. “Before I joined Honda I was with Yamaha and I said to them, ‘let’s build a twin!’” stated Colin. “Then when I joined Honda they decided they were going to do it, so obviously we were excited about it, knowing what Honda do with motors. They had ability to extract a lot of power out of it and we were excited about it.”
Edwards first got confirmation that the VTR1000SP1 was on the way as early as 1998, and first rode it in early 1999.
“We heard in 1998 that they were building it,” he said, “We went testing on it in Australia, at Phillip Island and Eastern Creek in – I think – February 1999. It was a full year before they even brought the bike out. I rode two days on the twin at PhiIlip Island. The bike was way slow; it was in a somewhat production mode at that time and it did not have any kit on it to speak of. But our lap times were about three-quarters of a second behind the RC45, I want to say, and we were going about 20-25kmph slower down the straight. We knew it was slow just because they had not had any time to develop it. We knew we could get more power out of it, but at that time we had just started playing with fuelling and mapping.”
Honda VTR1000 SP
As well as being fast around the corners, and eventually fast enough down the straight after the first year of non-competitive engine development, Edwards also found the bike relatively easy on tyres compared to the higher-revving fours he had known before.
“The twins were definitely easier on tyres, but at that time we were going through – I am not going to say a transition – but there was so much development going on with Michelin at that time,” confirmed Edwards, who was the fastest test rider imaginable for Michelin in those heady days before single make tyre regulations became almost ubiquitous in most championships. Tailored options were the norm. “Everybody was on different casings and different rubber… everybody had pretty much carte blanche. It was sort of, ‘try this one and if it doesn’t work try that one.’ Then they would come over and say, ‘Fogarty likes this one, why don’t you try this one?’ You did not have two or three to choose from, like nowadays. It was quite different back in the day.”
Another pleasant characteristic of the new V-twin was that it was less finicky in its basic on-track preparation. “It was definitely easier to set-up,” said Colin.
Colin Edwards and the VTR-SP RC51 Honda
But despite all the new things to understand, and while trying to race to win the title during a season in which nine different riders on seven different makes of machine won races, Honda’s brand new V-twin and Edwards had still secured the Riders’ Championship. They took eight race wins along the way, including the first and last of the season. A shift to 1000cc had led to 400 championship-winning points.
It was top teamwork, after a difficult but finally rewarding debut season for the VTR SP1. To the query of was it more man or machine in 2000, Edwards stated, “I think it was both things.” He was certainly ready to win outright as much as the new bike was. “I finished second the year before and I had been improving year-by-year. My level of riding was getting to the top level and ready to fight for the championship. At the same time, the bike we brought out was easier to ride but by no means perfect. The SP2 I would say was perfect. That was a great bike. The SP1… we did have to play around with it. It was not like every race was awesome.”
As well as so many challenges for individual wins, Edwards was also competing in the era of tyre wars, which his Michelins usually won, but by not every time. Some races were downright stressful for this reason, and more.
“It was stressful!” agreed Colin. “We had that tyre thing going on, and then you would show up at Sugo or Donington, or anywhere where Dunlop were on point and there was nothing you could do. We did have bad weekends and you just had to come out of a bad weekend the best you could.”
Colin Edwards and the VTR-SP RC51 Honda
With limits of the amount of testing he could do on WorldSBK circuits, Edwards made the most of his other riding opportunities, especially in France. “I think that was around the time that you had two allocated test tracks, and we did more tests at Clermont-Ferrand for Michelin than anywhere,” remembers Colin. “We could not have done without that.”
After the then all-time WorldSBK great Carl Fogarty (Ducati) had been eliminated from 2000 season and then his career through a nasty shoulder injury, Edwards’ was given no respite in his title charge after Noriyuki Haga and his homologation special Yamaha found their stride.
“The first race, in South Africa, I won. Haga was right there with me; and Fogarty. In the second race Haga just cleared off – by seconds. He was gone and I was riding my ass off. It was just weird; why had he not done that in the first race? A setting change, whatever, I dunno? But it was a little bit abnormal I thought at the time.
“At Brands Hatch all I had to do was to have, I think, two tenth places, even if they had not taken those points away, so it was in the back of my mind. It was Brands Hatch and I usually won there, so I was not really stressed.”
Colin Edwards and the VTR-SP RC51 Honda
In the final chapter of a multi-venue rolling fairytale, Honda’s first WorldSBK V-twin and Edwards won the title, and would do so again on the subsequent SP2 in 2002. But it was that first winning season in 2000 that blew everybody’s mind, even if it took every joule of energy and spark of inspiration the manufacturer, technical partners, team and rider had to make the outcome certain.
“Adrian Gorst was my crew chief, which he had been since 1998 and Neil Tuxworth was leading the team – we had a really good crew,” affirmed Edwards.
“Honda put in a lot that year, I would say a full factory effort. We had some Japanese staff come around race-by-race. As far as the amount of effort that was put in I would say maximum. There was nothing that we were missing. That was also the first year that me and Valentino Rossi did the Suzuka 8-Hour. So all of this went into developing the bike – it was a big, big effort on the twin that year.”
Edwards continues “We won WorldSBK, we beat Ducati and the bike was awesome, but the 2002 bike was even way better. It was a development thing. We did the whole first two years with the SP1, found out where our weaknesses were, where we could make it better, and built that into the 2002 models. That is just R&D, but from where they started in 2000, obviously they started at a really good spot – and we won the championship.”
In the end, the RC51 in its three years of full WorldSBK competition amassed 26 victories, a further 30 podium places and two Riders’ Championship titles in 2000 and 2002 with Colin Edwards.
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