The World Superbike circus arrived in Portugal for its latest stop. Let’s take a nosy at what happened.
The Portimao round was overshadowed by the shock loss of the brilliant World Supersport 300 multiple race winner and championship challenger Victor Steeman. However, the young Dutchman’s family proudly announced that by donating his organs he had saved no less than 5 people’s lives. So in that spirit of positivity, let’s have a quick round-up of the action in Portugal.
Alvaro lights the afterburners
Although Toprak won the shortened Race 1 and the Superpole Race, all talk was of Alvaro’s performance in the full-length Race 2.
The miniature Spaniard was embarrassingly quick in a straight line, leading for calls to have the idiotically fast Ducati reigned in. A big part of the problem is that Alvaro on a Ducati has roughly the same power to weight ratio as Bradley Smith’s trophy cabinet being carried by a Saturn V moon rocket.
Here’s a suggestion: Individual Rev Limits.
In this day and age it should be trivial to assign different rev limits to each rider, taking into account their body weight. This would equalize the power to weight ratios somewhat.
Say you set the average rider weight at 65kg. Everyone lighter would be docked 50rpm per 2kg of body weight, up to a maximum of -250rpm. Everyone heavier would be allowed an extra 50rpm per 2kg of body weight, to a maximum of +250rpm.
So tiny riders like Alvaro Bautista weighing up to 55kg would be docked 250rpm. Huge riders like Scott Redding weighing over 75kg would receive an extra 250rpm. Scott would have 500 rpm more than Alvaro, while medium sized riders like Johnny Rea would be in the middle, and everyone else rated on a Pedrosa to Uccio scale of blubberitudiness. Obviously these rev allowances would be added or subtracted from the limits that each manufacturer is already assigned.
As a bonus, there could be an official weigh-in like they have in boxing, which would invariably end up in a massive brawl between the various riders and their entourages.
World Supersport is increasingly super
Arguably the hottest motorcycle racing category right now is World Supersport. The racing is incredible and some seriously talented Moto2 rejects are flooding into the series.
Reigning champ and this year’s title favourite Domi Aegerter has won most of the races, but it’s not a tedious Domi Domination. He doesn’t usually take the lead until there’s only a couple of laps left. Until then he battles elbow to elbow with a mixture of riders from the sensible Baldassarri to the howling mad Can Oncu.
The middleweight class is right back to the heights of excitement and insanity that it achieved in the early 2000s, when it was labelled “The Axe-Murderer Class”.
The new rules also mean that various manufacturers are in the mix. Triumph won their first ever race at Portimao. Ducati have taken multiple podiums this year and a win is on the way.
And with Domi moving up to World Supers, next year’s title race will be wide open.
It’s no surprise that Moto2 riders are drooling over WSS seats. Next year, Moto2 will have 21 races at 21 rounds. But WSS will have 24 races at just 12 rounds. A damn sight less travelling, less time spent in the world’s scummiest dictatorships, and on top of that an opportunity to build a relationship with a major manufacturer.
A Moto2 rider has a relationship with a team and a chassis manufacturer, which generally leads to nothing, or at most a KTM ride where you get unjustifiably fired half way through your first season. But if you’re on a Yamaha, a Kawasaki or a Ducati in World Supersport and fighting for victories, you’re vastly more likely to move up to World Superbike with that manufacturer. Very tempting for fast Moto2 riders who are overlooked for MotoGP rides.
Next round
The World Superbike paddock next heads to the obscure 3rd world hell-hole Argentina, believed to lie somewhere the West of the Falkland Islands.