MV Agusta has entered World Championship competition this year in both the WSB and World Supersport categories. In its first World Supersport race of the year at Phillip Island last weekend, it took the victory beneath Jusel Cluzel. Cluzel was aboard MV’s F3 675. This historic win comes 38 years after the last World championship race victory for MV. That win came from the legendary Giacomo Agostini. Here’s the press release from MV:
Thirty-eight years on from their last success, achieved by the great Giacomo Agostini on his 4-cylinder 500 cc at the Nürburgring, MV Agusta are back on the top of a world championship podium. The superb F3 675 of the MV Agusta Reparto Corse – Yakhnich Motorsport team has, in fact, pulled off a stunning Supersport win at the Phillip Island circuit to take the first round of this World Championship.
The win followed an incredible comeback by Jules Cluzel: despite starting from 14th place on the grid, he soon set an astonishing pace, steadily making his way up the field to catch the leaders and setting the scene for a spectacular battle for final victory. In the end a gutsy Cluzel got the best of Coghlan and De Rosa, who came in second and third respectively. In short, the young French rider of the MV Agusta Reparto Corse – Yakhnich Motorsport team rode a blinder, showcasing both his considerable talent and the bike’s enormous potential. The team’s other standard bearer, Vladimir Leonov, might well have put in an equally brilliant performance were it not for an unfortunate fall in the first few laps.
Jules Cluzel: “We were terribly unlucky both during testing and at the start of the weekend. We rode far fewer laps than we should have. So, after that, going on to win was just a dream! Before the start I told my mechanics I’d do my utmost: and that’s exactly what I did, without making a single mistake. It’s a deserved victory; we’ve still got a long way to go but we’re convinced that the bike and the Team have huge potential”.
Delighted by this success, Giovanni Castiglioni, President of MV Agusta, stated: “A marvellous win, an indescribable thrill. I want to dedicate this first victory to my father, whose faith in MV and the possibility of a successful return to racing was always unshakeable, and the late father of Brian Gillen, our Reparto Corse manager. I want to thank the Yakhnich Motorsport team and everyone involved in this ambitious project for their exemplary commitment”.
Como-born rider Claudio Corti’s debut in Superbike proved more problematic yet was, nevertheless, encouraging. Riding the F4 RR, he finished the two races in 13th and 18th position respectively, with only a tough start in Race 2 preventing him from taking points in both.
A shame that MV has its first win in decades, and nearly everybody spells MV Agusta incorrectly?
Great to see someone on the top step other than Kenan, who is really the king of WSS. I think he isn’t going to have many DNF’s like this and will probably own the series this year, but at least this makes it interesting to start.
Sorry, but I don’t like Kenan’s attitude. He spent some time in Moto 2 and didn’t do very good. Was it his ride or Kenan?
The guy is obviously hugely talented….motorcycling (not scooters) cant exactly be a big thing in Turkey like they are in the US, Europe or Australia.
Shame about his voice though…..
The different displacements for different cylinder counts should be no surprise to anyone even vaguely familiar with the sport and internal combustion engines. If you say “All engines should be the same displacement or it isn’t fair”, just know that you will have defined a series with only one cylinder count competing – all twins, all triples, all fours or whatever. The limiting factor is piston speed; exceed the max piston speed consistently and the engine will fail mechanically. If the triples are held to 600cc like the fours, for example, they won’t make as much HP and therefore won’t be competitive, as the calculation for maximum HP is directly proportional to RPM and the triples won’t be able to run as high a max RPM due to piston speed.
Whilst you are correct about the displacement difference, piston speed etc. you make the assumption that the different engine configurations share a similar bore to stroke ratio. It’s entirely possible to make an engine with less cylinders safely rev as high (Superquadro for example) by making them extremely over-square. There’s a little more to it than that as even race bikes require a certain amount of drive-ability and there’s compromises made to suit around ideal combustion chamber size and valve area etc. The achievable BMEP for each engine layout is really the limiting factor, piston speed is just a contributing factor.
Triples are great motors and I’m dead keen to sample MV’s offering as a new convert to Street Triples.
Piston speed is a function of stroke and rpm, not displacement.
Hey, the longer the stroke, the greater the displacement….just ask my wife. (ba-dum-bum)
Hello
The last wins of MV Augusta in the 500CC are from Phil Read
1975 Brno
Great effort and I hope they go on with it. WSS is arguably the toughest category to compete in due to the rule restrictions and the level of rider skill being quite even.
Long live triples!
Their past emphasis on form to the detriment of function has put them behind. But they’re making significant progress as this win proves. Hope they make it on the showroom floor.
And to think Harley Davidson could have had their first road race victory in decades bwaahhaaahhaa
Doubtful, after HD would have forced MV to use a V-rod based motor..
Congrats MV Agusta! I doubt very much that winning any world class motorsports event could ever be attributed to a “fluke!” Hoping this portends only good things for their future race success.
Interesting that MV’s bike is 675cc in a class dominated by 600s. What is the engine displacement of MV’s Japanese Supersport competition?
I’d be interested to compare same-track lap times, current production-based racing “Supersports” like this MV vs. purpose-built race-only bikes from ten to fifteen years ago. Cost vs. performance curves tilt forever upward (performance continually increases at faster rate than does cost).
I’ll hazard a guess: 3-cyl 675cc race equal to 4-cyl 600cc motors, right?
Correct. Triumph has tried in the past but wasn’t consistently competitive.
Yeah, this is the 1st time I’ve heard of a 675 winning a road race. Good for MV !
A Daytona 675 won the toughest road race a few years ago – the TT.
So the 3-cylinder motor has 25% fewer ignition sequences per crankshaft revolution (vs. the 4-cylinder), but the 3-cyl has 12.5% larger cylinder capacity (675cc vs. 600cc).
Which motor has theoretical performance advantage? I tend to believe the 4-cylinder 600cc has performance advantage.
Herculean task and herculean effort!! Outstanding. Keep going and don’t let up one bit. You have made us proud, and I am looking forward to seeing more progress, and undoubtedly there is exciting times ahead for Erik and the team.
Cool, I hope the three cilynder configuration become dominant so maybe in the future more machines will share it.
now, about our 1.1 three cilynder motorcycle…. still waiting…
Opps – ha ha! The computer made me do it.