Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

The July 10 FIM press release announcing that World Superbike Championship promoters FGSport Group have requested a spec tire rule for the 2004 World Superbike season came as a surprise to the top two teams in the 2003 World Superbike Championship.

“I saw it yesterday. Big surprise. We never heard about it,” said Paolo Ciabatti, the head of Ducati Corse’s Superbike racing program. “In principle, I don’t want to comment at the moment, but it’s not something we were expecting.”

Asked if he knew of anyone was consulted before the spec tire deal was announced, Ciabatti said, “The single make of the tire, no, I don’t think they talked to anybody (before they announced it). It was a surprise for everybody including us.”

“I was surprised to hear of the proposal,” said Darrell Healy, Team Principal for HM Plant Ducati, “because the first part of the press release deals with talking about unifying the Superbike rules between the International Championship, the UK and the AMA and Japan.

“Obviously, in those other three National Championships there is no one-tire rule.

“It was a little bit surprising that one hand was talking about unification of rules and then secondly World Superbike’s going to have one tire.

“So, I’m not sure if it’s a suggestion or actually something that’s definitely going to happen for next year. I think what we’re going to do is to see what is actually going to be proposed in terms of technical rules for next year at Brands Hatch. They’re saying that’s when it’s going to be announced.”

Asked if he had heard any talk of the spec tire deal before Thursday, Healy said, “It was the first time I officially heard of it being a possibility. There was talk or rumors at Silverstone of maybe some sort of one tire manufacturer.

“No brand has officially been announced, but there’s a very strong rumor, again, that it’s going to be Pirelli.”