The MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship (BSB), citing escalating costs, will abandon FIM Superbike World Championship technical rules and will make its Evolution (EVO) class the only Superbike class beginning in 2012. That’s the word from BSB Series Director Stuart Higgs, who spoke to Roadracingworld.com last weekend during the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where he was serving as an FIM official. “We started with EVO in 2010 really as a pilot to see if a (Motec) control ECU solution would be good [based on] the reaction from the teams, from multiple manufacturers,” said Higgs. “We’ve run at an FIM (World Superbike) technical level for some time. It’s an incredible show we’ve got this year. We’ve got six different winners, 13 different people on the podium. The reality is we’re about to get into the area where certain technical things will become affordable to less and less people, which is not a situation that will not be particularly good and it definitely sends the message out to teams and perspective participants that it’s an exclusive club.” Higgs pointed out that his series only has one true factory team, HM Plant Honda, which is owned by Honda UK, and only two teams that are able to take full advantage of the FIM World Superbike technical rules, HM Plant Honda and Swan Yamaha. So to keep escalating costs under control and ensure strong participation in the Superbike class, Higgs is planning on simplifying to just the EVO class with a modified rules structure. “The plan is to look at EVO as the base model,” stated Higgs. “It may be a little too simplified for our fans’ tastes and the manufacturers’ tastes and all that, so we decided to take EVO as the base and up it a little bit with limited tuning, so basically cam work lift, profile, duration [with] the control ECU and put a rev limit on, manufacturer standard plus 750 rpm. That, we think, is a good solution to give everybody a little bit of flexibility on the tuning front to be fairly competitive and make a decisive move on the electronics.” This move by BSB follows a similar move made by AMA Pro Racing in 2009, when tighter restrictions were placed on the AMA Pro Superbike class, mandating the use of stock forks, stock swingarms and parts that are homologated by AMA Pro Racing and available for purchase by any entrant in the series. Higgs said he was also considering adopting a parts homologation system similar to what is used by AMA Pro Racing. Higgs also took advantage of his visit to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to meet and speak with AMA Pro Road Racing officials, including C.O.O. and Managing Partner David Atlas, Director of Road Racing David McGrath and Technical Director of Competition Al Ludington.