Now is the time of year when beat writers consider possibilities, and maybe offer a few predictions, for the year ahead. So, let’s consider the world of motorcycle road racing:
World Ducati Gets Stronger?
Ducati earned both the MotoGP and World Superbike crowns in 2022, and although both series were very competitive at the front, Ducati took control. In Grand Prix, Ducati had more bikes on the grid than any other manufacturer, and critics complained of their behind-the-scenes influence.
Last season, Pecco Bagnaia earned the G.P. crown, holding off a late season effort from satellite Ducati rider Enea Bastianini. Now Bastianini joins Bagnaia on the “A” squad, and the only obstacle to likely domination id Ducati’s need to keep their two young stars from taking each other next summer.
Recently, a supposedly unbiased insider, FIM President Jorge Viegas, suggested that Valentino Rossi’s premier class team might soon switch to Yamaha, even though they have shown well in a development role for Ducati. Tellingly, Rossi has switched his car career from Audi (owner of Ducati) to BMW in 2023.
Rossi stays with the Team WRT out of Belgium for his second four wheeled season, but now sharing a BMW M4 GT3 in the GT World Challenge Europe.
We do know that Rossi’s 2023 Mooney VR46 motorcycle Racing Team will run Ducatis for Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi. For the first time ever, Yamaha will not have a satellite effort to support their MotoGP World title team, making development very difficult for riders Fabio Quartararo (2022 World Champ) and recent Rossi protégé Franco Morbidelli.
Third time the charm for Ducati in MotoAmerica?
To the surprise of no one, Danilo Petrucci is one and done in the U.S.A. – the runner-up in the 2022 MotoAmerica Superbike standings is heading to World Superbike in 2023. His replacement for Petrucci will be former MotoAmerica Superbike Champ Josh Herrin, who now leads the works-supported Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York effort.
In 2022, Herrin took the Ducati Panigale V-2 to the middleweight SuperSport Title in his first attempt, and crucially he has lots of experience with the spec Dunlop rubber used in MotoAmerica. Veteran Xavi Fores moves from Europe to make his MotoAmerica debut on the title-winning Ducati Desmo twin in SuperSport 2023.
Ducati a factor in CSBK 2023?
Recent big news in the Bridgestone CSBK series is the homologation of the Ducati Panigale v-twin for the Sport Bike category, the matching class to the American SuperSport category. No rider is confirmed for the big twin, but CSBK consider the machine a “benchmark” machine, meaning it sets the class standard for limits of performance, much as the Kawasaki 400 Ninja did when Lightweight rules were adopted for the start of the smallest National category in 2018.
Ducati rejoined the Canadian Superbike category in 2022, and rumors persist of possible serious effort for both top Pro and Amateur racers next season. Brooklin Cycle Racing’s Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike class
start Elliot Vierra, currently at home for the holidays in Guyana, is rumored to be jumping from in-line four-cylinder 600cc class power to vee-four duties on a big Duc. If Vierra moves to Superbike, would he continue with his race winning Yamaha YZF-R6 in the middleweight Pro division?
Dion in demand
There is no official news regarding Trevor Dion’s plans for 2023, with third year Pro Dion perhaps the hottest prospect in the last decade in terms of the Canadian road racing scene. (We should ask IM’s super tester Brett McCormick about that!)
Earning the Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike National title in his first attempt aboard a DLG Consulting Kawasaki ZX-6R Ninja, the 20-year-old also made a good impression at the semi-secret Grand Bend Bridgestone test in late September.
At the final SOAR Regional of the season at Grand Bend, Dion borrowed a near-stock FAST Company Yamaha YZF-R1 and nearly equaled his June CSBK National pole time set on a BMW. Wherever Dion lands, he is likely to be a major story in CSBK 2023, and a definite tip for a possible first career Superbike victory.
If both Dion and Vierra leave the National Sport Bike Middleweight Pro division, there are still several strong racers likely to fight for that crown. There were an incredible five first time winners in Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike in 2022, and close runner-up David McKay (Kaw) is the pre-season title favorite.
Company for Young and Dumas up front in Bridgestone CSBK 2023?
In CSBK in 2022, eventual Champ Ben Young (BMW) and then-Champ Alex Dumas (Suz) set a torrid pace, and few others were able to join the dice at the front – between them, Dumas and Young won all nine Pro Superbike Feature race events.
Kawasaki’s Jordan Szoke was a major factor in 2021, before his spring M/X accident sidelined the 13- time overall Canuk Champ for the entire 2022 campaign. While there are no announcements yet, we expect Szoke to return with his FAST Company ZX-10R Ninjas, built but not used for 2022.
Szoke could defiantly shake things up with the established Young-Dumas leading duo, as could the previously mentioned Dion on a competitive bike. Meanwhile, the likes of podium semi-regular Trevor Daley (Suzuki), Sebastian Tremblay (still with Kawasaki?), Michael Leon (Royal Distributing BMW) and luckless Samuel Guerin are all working towards their breakthrough first National Superbike Feature race victory.
Just who will be a possible race winner, let alone title contender, in CSBK ‘23, riding on what machine, should come into focus at the JenningsGP motorcycle-only test track in North Florida, March 14 & 15. For the first time in over a decade, all six of the CSBK classes are invited for a two-day test with the new spec rubber, so serious competitors have a get ready deadline for early in the pre-season.
- From Colin Fraser
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