Ducati Corse Superbike Director Paolo Ciabatti came to the AMA Superbike round at Virginia International Raceway August 19-20 to deliver the bad news to the Parts Unlimited Ducati team, AMA Pro Racing and select members of the media that Ducati would pull the plug on its AMA Superbike team for 2007. Here is the conversation between Ciabatti and the media: Paolo Ciabatti: Basically, we will not have a factory team in AMA Superbike next year. We will take 2007 as a year to consider what we will do in the future in America and this will naturally depend on many issues. First of all, commercial success of Ducati here. We would love to be able to afford to come back into Superbike. It’s a very expensive Championship, AMA Superbike, because of rider wages, material, going back and forth in the States and testing a lot. We test maybe four times more in AMA Superbike than what we do in World Superbike. So it’s a very expensive Championship. And naturally, up to today we have been able to fund it through some sponsorship but mainly paying from the headquarters the remaining cost. [Secondly,] the current situation is we have to be very careful with the way we spend our money for the next one or three years. [Finally,] the technical rules are also a question mark. We have asked for 1200cc Twins to be able in World Superbike. Still we haven’t found a final agreement on this. We have really no idea what the AMA will do under this respect, even though I think they will be ready to listen. Naturally, it would be easier to go there and say, ‘Hey, this is the FIM rules. Can we do something same or similar?’ And now we don’t have that yet. All of that put together, we have to take this decision, which is in a way a sad decision, but we must also be realistic. If we can’t do it, we can try to come back soon as possible. I don’t know if it’s one year’s time or two year’s time, when the American market will probably be strong enough to support through the sales and marketing budget to cover the cost of racing AMA Superbike. Q: How important will it be for AMA to adopt the same exact rules as World Superbike? Will that be a condition in 2008? PC: It would help a lot, because you know Ducati is not as big as any Japanese competitors. We do not have in the United States a self-standing technical racing department who can do their own development. We just have, basically, a subsidiary with more sales and marketing. So any development on a racebike machine has to be done at headquarters. If we have to do something specific for this market it’s a nightmare. So racing the same specification is making things much, much easier, because then we can give the same package we use for World Superbikes, which is proven, tested and we know. So we don’t have to use special parts or standard parts as we have to do today on some of the items in the engine. Q: So you’re in favor of one [technical rules] standard for U.S., Britain and World Superbike? Would that be your choice? PC: You know, I think it will be everyone’s choice, because for a manufacturer regardless of how big you are it makes sense. I don’t think anyone wants to waste resources if it’s unnecessary. There was a meeting [between FIM, FGSport Group and several National Federations, including AMA, that have domestic Superbike Championships] in Rome a few months ago trying to put this together. They couldn’t really reach any agreement. I think still as a manufacturer we wish this agreement could be found because it will make our life, and not only our life, much, much easier. Today, British Superbike rules are the same as World Superbike. AMA Superbike is slightly different on Twins. I see no reason why, unless a specific Championship wants to reduce performance, reduce speed and go in a different direction. Germany, they call it Superbike but it is Superstock. If this is something that a National Federation wants to go, we can’t really say much. We know that World Superbike wants to stay quite fast and competitive as they are now. They don’t want to go much towards the more standard bikes to keep the interest from the spectators. I think nobody likes to spend so much money for racing. I don’t think any company likes to spend too much unnecessary. So if we can find common rules which would keep the show as good as it is or even better and keep the costs a little more towards the low level I think everybody will be happy. Q: What about in the U.S. where the [Superbike] rules are set through 2008 at 1000cc? Are you hoping that they change the rules for 2008? PC: First of all, AMA has gone through a lot of changes and [has] a lot of new people, so now, I think, it’s easier to know whom someone should address the issues. I think it’s also difficult sometimes when you need to speak quite early about your plans and your plans are involving a new motorcycle and you not necessarily want to let everybody know you have a new bike coming out on a certain date because you still need to sell the bikes you have at the dealers. This has been, probably, one of the problems. When we start speaking about this, we didn’t have any production bike with that engine. We were winning World Superbikes, we were winning British Superbikes, and people said, ‘Hey, how come Ducati they don’t have such bike, and they win and they want to get advantages for what?’ So sometimes you have to speak early, but then people will not really, completely, fully understand the reasons of your request because they cannot see the product. And you cannot explain sometimes in public your strategy, your marketing strategy for the future because you have some implications on the sales. So its one of those situations you don’t know exactly how you can play it. Because if you have the bike on the market, say, ‘Hey, we want to race this bike, because this is the only bike we’re going to sell.’ So it makes it easier then to speak one year before when nobody knows [and] you don’t want to tell them. But again, AMA, I think once the agreement has been found for World Superbike 2008, I think that’s the moment they can have a look into the rules and see whether there is a way to accommodate these new rules for the Twins for 2008 onwards.” Q: Ducati has a seat on the new [AMA Road Race] Rules Making committee. Do you plan to keep your seat even though you won’t be racing in the series? PC: Naturally, we would like to keep it because we are still strongly committed to this market, and we are supporters of AMA now more than ever. It would be difficult to explain Ducati’s position on the technical rules for the future and then eventually the possibility to come back if you’re not there. So how can they know what our position is if we don’t race next year? We never said, and this is not our position, that we are quitting from America. America is the most important market for Ducati, not yet for the numbers because Italy is still selling more, but definitely it’s going to be soon the most important market for Ducati. We want to be able to be back again. So we would like to be in the position to explain our ideas and discuss with the other members about some fair rules that will be neither an advantage nor a disadvantage for the Twins. Q: If a team had its own money, would AMA-spec Ducati 999s and technical support be available for purchase in 2007? PC: No. Q: What about [your] riders? PC: First of all, this decision has not been taken months ago. It’s been taken days ago. So until this was really decided they had different priorities [i.e. racing]. With Neil [Hodgson], Neil has been on a Ducati for so many years, and if he’s willing to come back to Europe we wish to find him a good place on a Ducati in either World or British Superbike. But I haven’t spoken to him, so I don’t know. Maybe he has an offer to stay in America with someone else that he is considering. I don’t know at the moment. Editorial Note: According to a highly-placed source within AMA Pro Racing, Ducati has not made any formal or official request for new rules or displacement limits regarding Twin-cylinder motorcycles in AMA Superbike as of the VIR race weekend.