News 20 Jun 2013

ASBK tyre war in full effect at Queensland Raceway last weekend

Team Honda Racing protested against the Pirelli tyres of Australian Superbike Championship leader Glenn Allerton at Queensland Raceway.

Glenn Allerton, Next Gen and Pirelli have been the benchmark in 2013.

Glenn Allerton, Next Gen and Pirelli have been the benchmark in 2013.

Team Honda Racing protested against the Pirelli tyres of 2013 Australian Superbike Championship leader Glenn Allerton at Queensland Raceway on Sunday as the ASBK tyre war continues to heat up.

Honda team principle Paul Free, who’s team tested with Pirelli in the pre-season before opting to remain with Dunlop, lodged the protest following race one, however it wasn’t successful after a hearing that included MA, Free, Next Gen Motorsport team staff and Link International staff – distributors of Pirelli in Australia.

“The reason I placed the protest against Glenn’s team was because there’s a code on the tyre that I wanted clarification on,” Free commented. “It was interesting because in the hearing it was supposed to be just the Next Gen team and myself, but I walked into what was a Link International meeting.

“They defended my claim, but what can I say? If I didn’t do anything, I wouldn’t be representing my riders or everybody who supports us.”

National manager of Pirelli Moto, Don Nicholas, later clarified the coding to CycleOnline.com.au following race two on Sunday afternoon.

“The protest was on the SC0 rear tyre,” Nicholas explained. “There’s a stamp on the rear tyre that Honda was questioning. We had already explained this to Motorcycling Australia some time ago that it’s a quality control stamp, because it’s early production of a new product.

“There’s three different versions of it – an A, B and C version. What it means is if they have an issue with the quality, they go back and say ‘well righto, it’s that one, that one or that one’. After a while it disappears altogether.

“Each one of those is identical to the one without it and that’s the info we got back from Pirelli. MA actually asked us back at the start of the season what’s this other little stamp, so we contacted Pirelli and they confirmed it’s a quality control stamp that they do for a certain amount of time.

“It was all based on that, but we had all the backwards and forwards emails to Motorcycling Australia, Pirelli’s racing department and all that. It was a no-brainer really.

“I guess the protest was that we had some sort of special tyre, but what we also said was we’re more than happy to go grab another tyre from out the back in the pile, put it in Glenn’s bike and go race on it. There’s no problem either way because they’re all the same.”

For Allerton, the fact that rivals are concerned about his form on the Pirelli tyres has been a mute point. He’s satisfied with the Next Gen team’s decision to switch brands during the off-season and has worked hard to achieve their current success to date.

“They’re clutching at straws at the minute because it’s a business and you have to get results on the board to make it a success,” Allerton said.

“At the moment we’re the ones getting the results, so I’m not surprised. If the shoe was on the other foot and I thought there was something fishy going on, I’m sure our team would question it too.

“I just think the Pirelli tyre works really good on our BMW HP4 and the bike’s really easy to ride. I’m not worried about what they said about my tyres – Suzuki and Honda both had the opportunity to use these tyres and I believe some even tested them and didn’t like the tyres.

“I had it in my mind from the start that this was going to work and we made it work with the help of Pirelli and the team. We’ve got the package to beat at the moment, so they’ve all got a fair bit of work to do.”

Earlier in the weekend, controversy surrounded Dunlop’s latest rear tyre homologated ahead of the Queensland round, as the former control tyre brand didn’t have enough available at the venue to supply all requests on Friday within the Superbike and Prostock ranks – prompting some to switch to Pirelli.

Dunlop motorcycle and motorsport manager Ken Wieden said the mishap was due to the ordering process ahead of the round, as Dunlop believed it had taken enough tyres before additional requests were made at the circuit.

Dunlop also reverted to its 125/80R17 KR448 5436 front tyre at QR, due to late delivery of the newly-homologated Dunlop 120/70R17 KR106 343. MA adjusted the homologation list ahead of the round, scheduled to be in effect for round three only.

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