From a press release issued by the World Superbike Championship press office:

What does it take to get the SBK circus moving?

SBK International has recently released some interesting figures regarding the transportation of the Superbike World Championship freight to non-European destinations (Australia, Japan and the USA).

In order to relocate the SBK circus from its traditional European base, a dedicated Alitalia Cargo 747 with a capacity of 95 tons (or 37 pallets) is chartered from Milan to move the Superbike World Championship to its non-European destinations. Official factory teams take as much as 7,000 kilograms made up of race machinery and spares. Smaller teams take in the region of 2,500 tons.

World Supersport teams, running smaller capacity motorcycles, transport between 1,500 and 5,000 kilograms in race machinery and spare parts. Kawasaki France, for example, accounted for more than 4,500 kilograms of the total freight shipped. With the combined World Superbike and Supersport teams in action in Australia, more than 83 tons were recently transported to Melbourne for the second round of the 2003 Championship.

The latest manufacturer team to enter the World Championship, Foggy Petronas Racing, transported some 7,000 kilograms to Australia and the factory Ducati Fila team took in the region of 6,000 kilograms down under. Similar weights are expected for the upcoming Japanese round of the Championship that takes place at Sportsland Sugo in Japan from 25 – 27 April.