NW200 Ducati today confirmed they will attend Donington this weekend
Alistair Kennedy speaking on behalf of the main sponsors NW200 stated:
“After much consultation between ourselves, JHP Racing, MSV and Buildbase, the NW200 team have today decided to attend Donington this weekend. The main reason for this decision is the fact that late yesterday MSV confirmed to John Hackett that John Laverty’s Buildbase NW200 Ducati 1098R Superbike Cup entry remains unaffected by the new weight ruling for Superbikes. Therefore it is in the best interests of the team, sponsors and race fans that we turn up and race as normal with John in the Superbike Cup”
However, Mr Kennedy went on to fully endorse the statement issued by GSE Racing on Tuesday concerning the timing, lack of consultation and completely unjustified rationale for the weight penalty on the Ducati Superbikes.
Most importantly he also confirmed that JHP Racing have absolutely no supporting data as to how the Superbike will perform with this weight penalty in race set up.
In conclusion he clarified that the team will use this weekend mainly as a test session with the new weight penalty onboard the Superbike and that no decision will be taken as to Michael Rutter’s participation in the races on Monday until Sunday lunchtime at the earliest.
How would you f*ckin’ know you’ve only been here a couple of days . . . lighten up or did you just pop along here to have a whine about how hard done by Ducati are then toddle off when somebody says there there . . . :doze:If Ducati wan to race then they accept the rules, simple as that, if not they can sling their hook. They have a capacity cheat anyway, would be surprised if they didn’t win even with an extra 10Kg.
racing should be an even playing field. And mathematically the only reason shakey has a lead is due to consistency and not a ducatti performance advantage.
i’m no more a fan of ducati as i am any other manufacturer. Frankly i don’t care who wins as i’m a fan of decent racing and not a blind fan of a single team/manufacturer. What i don’t like to see though is the dangerous precedent being set by Stuart Higgs. If this matter is looked at objectively its simply laughable that the penalty has been imposed and i’m only against it because if decisions like these can be made it simply makes a joke out of the championships and does nothing for the integrity of motorcycle racing as a whole.
But the rule that allows this change to be implemented has been in the book from the start of the year and the additional weight is only to create a level playing field due to the configuration Ducati choose to use.
Does seem to be a lot of talk about safety from all the teams . . . I wonder how relevant that is or are they all having a bit of a whine ?
yeh thats exactly it steve. all the IL4 runners said no to race parts at the start of the season when ducatti asked on safety grounds. Now the tables have turned as those teams now want race parts and are asking for the changes they ALL protested initially.
as for the 10kg no one can argue that it wasn’t a possibility to have weight penalties if the ducattis were unfairly strong. BUT what the issue is is that ducatti are yet to show any competitive advantage at all. Never fastest through the speed traps and only have a championship lead because the bikes have finished every race and the riders have stayed on them.
A quick look at the superbike forum and you’ll see the calculations showing that its only shakey who is doing the business. He shouldn’t be penalised for di&king on the rest fair and square.
And 10kg is a $hite load of static weight to have to add…thus the safety issues. BTW WSB has a 5kg maximum IF they chose to impose it.
