From a press release issued by Octagon Motorsports, organizers of the FIM World Endurance Series:

The Imola 200 Miles is going to open a sensational Endurance season

Bikes Go Head to Head

The opening round of the World Endurance Championship next weekend will see the world’s fastest sports bikes line up in head-to-head competition at the 200 Miglia di Imola.

The World Endurance SuperProduction class allows modification to a bike’s suspension and wheels, but crucially does not allow any engine tuning other than exhaust and engine-mapping changes. As this class is the most popular amongst the leading teams, the Imola 200 will give a unique opportunity to see the best bikes from Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Ducati and Mondial racing each other in a world-class series.

Based on results from the 2002 championship, Suzuki’s GSX-R1000 will be the bike to beat. A new model has been released for this year, but supply shortages have meant that teams such as Zongshen and Suzuki GB Phase One will still be racing the proven 2002 version.

Yamaha’s R1 is expected to be the main challenger to Suzuki. Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 took fourth place in the championship with an R1 last year and GMT94 – third in the championship in 2002 – have switched to Yamaha from Suzuki for this season.

Kawasaki’s ZX9R will be raced by the Swiss Bolliger team, who have years of endurance experience in place to make up for any outright speed disadvantage; their polished performance in pitlane could be worth seconds a lap.

Ducati DRE will be running a new-for-2003 Ducati 999R. After finishing eighth overall last year and getting on the podium at the Brno race, the much-improved Ducati twin is expected to be competitive from the start of the season.

The Italian flag will also be carried by the Mondial Piega of Team X-One, that will run in the Open Class. Mating a proven Honda engine to a finely crafted Italian chassis should make the Mondial a real challenger.

The big unknown at the start of the Imola 200 will be Yamaha Austria’s Superbike specification R1. Although fitted with inlet restrictors, the rest of the engine is in a much higher state of tune than the other bikes in the field which could give the bike a serious advantage.

No single bike won more than one race last year, and with the level of competition raised again for 2003 all bets are off for the Imola 200.