WSB up for sale

The new World Superbike championship campaign gets underway this Saturday in Qatar, but it could be news off the track hitting the headlines after rumours emerged that Italian owners could be willing to sell the series.

WSB owners FG Sport are reported to have instructed American company Merrill Lynch to conduct an auction for the series with a price tag thought to be around £50million.

Venture capital company, Bridgepoint is hotly-tipped to table a bid to acquire the series, although they might face scrutiny from the monopolies commission as they already have controlling stakes in MotoGP and BSB.

A deal to buy World Superbikes would effectively give them control of world road racing. Bridgepoint paid around £350million to acquire Dorna last summer after previous owners CVC were forced to relinquish the Spanish-based company. That followed a directive made by the European Commission after they acquired the majority shareholding in the Formula One world championship.

This would not be the first time that WSB has changed hands. The series was the brainchild of former AMA Superbike racer Steve McLaughlin and ran for the first time in 1988 under the guidance New Zealand-based Sports Marketing Company.

When they hit financial problems it was sold to the Flammini brothers, Maurizio and Paolo, in 1990. Investment by Indonesian Tommy Suharto helped re-finance the series in 1996. Octagon then bought WSB from the Flammini brothers in 1998 but sold it back to them in 2003, the brothers continuing to run the series throughout the period.

After several lean years for the series, prospects for 2007 seem better than ever, with a grid featuring box office names Troy Bayliss, Troy Corser, Noriyuki Haga, James Toseland and ex-MotoGP hero Max Biaggi.

Neither Maurizio nor Paolo Flammini was available to discuss why they would want to put the series up for sale at this time.

Marco seeks tyre life

A disappointing test in Qatar this week has left Marco Melandri bemoaning rear tyre endurance as the time ticks away for Bridgestone to make better rubber for the Italian’s Honda.

With the first race at Qatar in a few weeks, Melandri’s problem in Qatar was again centred around rear endurance and he said: “We don’t have so much edge grip at maximum angle and it drops down very early after five laps. I tried to do a run in Qatar just to see how long I could do on a rear tyre before the performance dropped.”

Melandri said his problems and subsequent solutions were different to factory Ducati rider Loris Capirossi. He tried the same Bridgestone rear tyre that Capirossi had completed a full 22-lap race simulation on but Melandri couldn’t get it to work.

He said: “Ducati is totally different to our bike and it’s more similar to the 990 in the way they can open the throttle. Honda has less power so we have to make up time in the corners. So we spend more time at maximum lean angle and this finishes the tyre earlier.

The Ducati riders can pick up the bike like the 990 and open the throttle earlier. For us it is impossible with this engine and we need to use more corner speed for the lap time.”

Edwards tops Rossi in Sepang MotoGP testing

Yamaha 800cc MotoGP rider Colin Edwards smashes team-mate Valentino Rossi’s previous lap record on the final day of testing at Sepang, in Malaysia.

As both riders tried out new Michelin qualifying tyres, Colin went out and stunned everyone with a lap time of 2min 00.248secs, beating his team-mate’s pole position lap record, set last year aboard the M1 990 cc Yamaha.

Valentino has already announced that he wants more power, but is happy with the way the new machine feels - also coming close to his own record with a time of 2min 00.248secs. The new Yamahas have proven to be stable, and faster than last year’s 990cc machines, although Valentino and Colin have not tested with the full line-up of riders for this year’s series.

The next stage of testing takes place in Qatar on 13th-15th February. It will be the first time this season that the entire class has been on track together, where all competitors can see what their opposition is likely to be - especially on a new track, which will make for a level field.