Will the Superbike and Endurance Worlds merge?

An unprecedented revolution is about to break out: the International Federmoto wants to merge the two champions of the derivatives from the series

Drafts have been coming for months, but in recent days they have become more insistent: will Superbikes and Endurance become a World Cup only? At first glance it seems a difficult fusion, not to say impossible: these are very different leagues in history, public, economic dimension, sports format and technical regulation. Moreover, and this is obviously the predominant aspect, they are managed by two different companies: Dorna and Eurosport Events.

THE SPARK

To understand where the one that could become an avalanche started from, you need to go back to May 17th. When Jorge Viegas, Portuguese, new president of the International Federmoto, declared: "That Dorna is the promoter of MotoGP and Superbike is not the right thing, we have a plan to change things"(Here the complete declaration) In the days that followed, Carmelo Ezpeleta, number one of the Spanish manager, flatly denied the maximum office of the FIM. "We have the Superbike until 2038, and we don't sell." The relations between Viegas and Dorna were tense already when the Portuguese was head of his national federation. The election in FIM has stretched the rope further. Situation incomprehensible from the outside, given that Dorna pays out the millions of rights of the two World Cups, so it's the main customer of the FIM. Why did this war break out?

WHAT IS THE PLAN?

The Viegas plan could be, in fact, put together Superbike and Endurance. But considering the co-management between two promoters unlikely, who will buy who? The FIM EWC is in the middle of the ford: Eurosport Events has improved the package but, to date, the World Championship has no uniformity. He lives on three "main events", namely the two French 24 Hours (Le Mans and Bol d’Or), in addition to the Suzuka 8 Hours. The fourth, a novelty, is the 8 Hours of Sepang scheduled for Saturday, December 14th. Builders and sponsors want to see if it will be the spark that will make the interest in the series in Asia explode. Which, at the moment, is at its lowest: Superbike, out of Thailand, in 2020 will not have a round in the area.

SUPERBIKE IN GREAT RELAUNCH

After a few years in a minor tone, the WorldSBK is taking off again. The return of the Honda, finally with a new bike, HRC team and top drivers, sparked the arms race. The five committed manufacturers (Ducati, BMW, Yamaha, Honda and Kawasaki) are not paying any attention. Ambitions, budgets and even participation are growing: in 2020 the permanent pilots will be 24 (against 19 in the past season). Even the support categories are getting back up: the Supersport 2020 will have the fullest grid and will propose a much more intriguing technical comparison than the recent past. The WSSP300 is working (more or less) and next year the Yamaha R3 European Cup will also start for the 12-15 year olds. With the Superbike the Dorna goes more or less in balance. The not inconsiderable gain is to avoid being managed by others and to be a competitor to MotoGP again.

SCENARIOS

To date, the only thing certain is that they are talking about this topic at the highest level. Dorna, FIM, Eurosport Events and probably even more, that is, within Bridgepoint, a fund that owns Dorna, and Discovery, a media giant that owns the Eurosport group. We fans, of course, are interested in what we will see on the track in two or three years. A suggestive hypothesis is that the Superbike disputes some rounds on Endurance distance: a calendar with dozens of "stardard" appointments and four-five duration rankings would be intriguing. Incorporating the Suzuka 8 Hours into the WorldSBK would mean bringing the derivatives from the series back to Japan. But how would it be possible to manage such an unconventional format from the point of view of technical and sports regulation? Perhaps this is the "great project we are working on" of which Viegas speaks?

AND WHO WOULD YOU GET?

Behind this earthquake (now underground …) there is finance. So it is clear that the first movements, if any, will be acquisitions. Is Bridgepoint looking for a buyer for Superbike or maybe for the whole package, ie MotoGP included? Or is it Discovery trying to get rid of Endurance? And the FIM, in this confrontation between giants, will really have the strength to dictate the line, or will it intervene only in games made, to manage the most directly sporting aspects?