There’s a rumour floating around that World Superbike organizers are putting an end to superstock racing.
According to Italian website Motosprint, the bigwigs at Dorna (the parent company behind WSBK, as well as MotoGP) are meeting and planning the future of the production-based race series. For years, WSBK has featured superstock racing alongside superbike racing – basically, the superstock bikes are machines that are closer to what customers can buy off a showroom floor.
Now, though, that’s supposedly coming to an end. The rumours suggest the 600 cc and 1000 cc classes are both on the way out, to be replaced by a 250 cc class instead.
This makes sense for many reasons. For one, it would allow WSBK teams to run bikes closer to stock form, keeping costs lower. It would also allow manufacturers like Honda and Kawasaki to showcase their 250s on the racetrack; with the developing world turning to 250s as a step up from their 125s, and the developed world looking at quarter-litre bikes as a cost-effective transportation alternative, you can bet manufacturers want to promote these machines as much as possible. A production-based 250 cc class (as opposed to MotoGP’s Moto3, which essentially pits Honda and KTM against each other on bikes with little resemblance to street machines) would do that.
Who knows? Maybe we’ll even see Stacey Nesbitt racing in this new series soon.
