Valentine: 'BSB needs a control ecu'

While there has been a swirling change of opinion among some BSB team bosses regarding next year’s BSB regulations, one man who has a fixed view on the future  is Worx Suzuki team manager Jack Valentine. He gave MCN his thoughts on the situation…….
 
“I think in the past two years we’ve seen WSB become like MotoGP (in terms of the escalation of electronics).

“In the past the budgets for the bikes/staff in WSB and BSB were not that different – in fact the only real difference was in terms of logistics for WSB – and of course they don’t have a one-bike rule.

“But now if you wanted to compete with Aprilia or BMW in WSB you would need three staff dealing with data issues and you’d need the latest package of electronics – if you could get your hands on it.

“I’ll admit that you could still get the occasional result with less than that but to sustain a season-long challenge for the title, you would need the same level of resources as Aprilia and BMW to compete. 

“Plus the fact you’d also need to resources to run a full time test team – virtually the same budget again as your race team. BMW have Steve Martin and Aprilia have Alex Hoffman. It’s a crazy level of budget.

“The thing is that if we stay with the current BSB rules (which are the same as WSB with no limits on electronics), we’re going to have to upgrade to at least two data guys – we have one at present – and do much more testing.  Because if we don’t, you can bet our rivals will.

“If that happens, the first thing I’m going to have to do is push for more budget, more sponsorship so we can invest in more staff and an improved electronics package.

“We could buy an advanced package, with gyros and map the bike from corner to corner. There’s no limit really – apart from your budget. But the problem is, the kind of money we’re talking isn’t out there in the current climate. 
And that’s why, in BSB, we need to have a control ecu to stop this escalation now.”