When the Fast By Ferracci (FBF) MV Agusta team started making plans to race in the 2007 AMA Championship, it originally intended to race in Superstock on Pirelli tires. The team even conducted two tests with American Matt Lynn and Italian Luca Scassa riding Superstock-spec MV Agusta F4-1000Rs on Superstock-spec Pirelli slicks at JenningsGP and Daytona International Speedway. Between those tests, however, FBF Team Owner Eraldo Ferracci and the powers that be at MV Agusta headquarters in Italy decided to change plans and race in AMA Superbike. And that change has led to FBF MV Agusta breaking a “gentleman’s agreement” with Pirelli and doing a deal with Dunlop. “Yes, it’s true,” Ferracci told Roadracingworld.com, confirming his team has switched from Pirelli to Dunlop tires. “We don’t want to put up or put down anybody, but because we need so many tires [and] they [Pirelli] no have enough tire for everybody who request. So they don’t want to short me tires, so I choose the other company [Dunlop]. I talk to them, and they have enough tire available and that’s what we did. “[Pirelli] have all the 16.5[-inch tires] in World Superbike. In America it’s a little bit problem because Pirelli in America is new. So when they allocated all the Pirelli tires, they no think about Superbike. They were thinking about Superstock. “They say, ‘Whoa! We already made all the arrangements, so many tires for the World Championship, so many tires for the American Championship, so many tires for this and that. We no put on 16.5 inch tires for Superbike in America because we intended to do Superstock.’ So that is why we stopped with Pirelli, because even if I wanted say, ‘OK, but I want to do 16.5-inch,’ And they say, ‘We already build those tires, we already budgeted those tires for the World Championship.'” “We had originally spoke to Eraldo when he visited Mid-Ohio in [September] 2006,” Pirelli North America Road Race Manager Richard Moore told Roadracingworld.com. “When he came there he mentioned he would be running in Superstock. We had budgeted and prepared for them to do Superstock, and Superstock does 17-inch slicks. “Then Eraldo contacts us and says he wants to try the tires and the riders out at JenningsGP. So we supplied him with some tires to do that. Everything went well down there. They broke the track record, and we’re on a roll. “Then we don’t hear from him. And the next thing we know, we read in the press — probably on your website — that he’s going to be running Superbike. We thought, ‘Well, that’s nice.'” Even though there was some confusion on which class Ferracci’s team would run and his MV Agustas were in a very early state of tune, Moore still invited Ferracci’s team to Daytona in December 2006 to use Pirelli’s tire test as essentially free set-up time. “After the tire test is when we talked this over,” continued Moore. “He said, ‘This is what I need to make this [Superbike] happen.’ We said, ‘That’s fine, but we’re not ready for that. That involves a whole different series of costs that haven’t been budgeted or prepared for.’ In other words, he’s changing his mind. We’re not changing ours. I guess he wasn’t happy with that and went to another manufacturer and they found a way to make something work out. “He’s expecting R&D level support for Superbike in the U.S. We don’t want to mislead anyone. R&D level support is available [only] at the World Superbike level. So we told him our efforts [in America] were focused more on Superstock, and him switching to Superbike means that he can’t have that level of support unless he’s in that arena. It’s not because he’s not a good guy. It’s the whole support structure behind that.” When asked for his feelings on the development, Moore said, ‘It’s like when you have a party. You invite all your friends and hope they all come. It’s disappointing when all of our friends don’t show up, but you’re still going to have the party.” Ferracci said his team is currently waiting on Italy’s extended holiday season to end so he can get the special parts he needs to finish building his first batch of F4-1000R Superbikes, which are being assembled by FBF crew members in Italy. After assembly and dyno testing, the bikes will be crated up and shipped to America and hopefully track tested by the middle of February.