Featured In the November 2022 issue of Roadracing World:

        The Ducati factory team dominated the 2003 Superbike World Championship. Champion Neil Hodgson was 218 points clear of the first non-factory Ducati rider in third. Hodgson won the first nine races, then finished second, then won the next two. When Hodgson didn’t win, teammate Ruben Xaus usually did. The team ran on Michelin prototype slicks. 

        Ducati still won most of the races in 2004. But fewer than 218 points covered the first 11 riders in the series. Multiple Ducati teams won, and the official Honda team won four races. The biggest change in 2004? Pirelli became the spec tire supplier for the series and gave everyone off-the-rack tires made on a street tire production line.

       Pirelli Racing Manager Giorgio Barbier says the company had been out of top-level Superbike competition for too long when it agreed to the then-revolutionary idea. Not only would everyone ride on the same tires, but there would be no custom-tailored prototypes…

            “The Same Tires For Everybody,” by Michael Gougis

The change, which was widely debated at the time, set into motion a string of series after series going to spec tires. MotoGP, MotoAmerica, British Superbike, the Canadian Superbike series, to name a few, all now roll on spec tires. World Superbike is happy. Pirelli is happy. So much so that their current deal means that Pirelli will supply the series with spec tires through 2023, marking 20 years as its sole tire supplier. Read about what World Superbike gets, and what Pirelli gets, and what track day riders and amateur racers get, in the latest issue of Roadracing World!

PREVIEW  the November 2022 Issue of Roadracing World!

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