The coming AMA superbike season promises to be an exciting one, despite the transitional nature of the rules for the class. Honda will be running a factory effort on the championship winning RC-51 and Yoshimura Suzuki told us in an interview that they will be running the ’03 GSX-R 1000 after determining that an 800cc GSX-R would not have the acceleration or top speed necessary to be competitive with the 1000cc v-twins of Honda & Ducat (due to the minimum weight limit increase).
Kawasaki returns with their ZX-7RR, with a little less metal in the cylinders after being bored out to 800cc. Their bike was typically on the heavy end of the scale, so the weight increase did not hurt them as much as Suzuki.
Doug Chandler feels very confident entering a Team No Limits Honda CBR 954RR in the superbike class, yet Yamaha remains conspicuously absent, despite having the highly competent and competitive R1 in their street bike lineup. Why not run the R1? We tested one, and we feel it has more power than the Honda 954, and although not as flickable as the 954, it turns better than a GSX-R 1000.
Chassis rigidity? Not a reason. Yamaha got protested in the Formula Xtreme class last year after it was determined that having the R1 engine in an R7 chassis violated the class rules. A modified R1 chassis seemed to handle the mega horsepower R1 motor just fine, and did not seem to make the bike any less competitive (just ask Damon Buckmaster and those he beat on that bike). Besides, the legal-for-AMA supe bike R1 will make less power than the Formula Xtreme version.
It has been stated by the Yamaha team that the late-arriving rules change from AMA Pro Racing for the super bike class left them without enough time to develop a competitive bike. Hmmm. Time didn’t seem to be an issue for Suzuki or Kawasaki – well, it “was” an issue, but they busted their collective tails (and continue to do so at this time) to come up with what they feel will be competitive machinery.
I’m sure Yamaha has a good reason for not jumping in the super bike pool this year, I just haven’t heard it yet. The AMA class would be a bit more colorful and competitive if Yamaha were there, too.
