WSB: Radical second race grid shake up introduced for 2017

World Superbike bosses have announced a radical shake up to how the grid is formed for a weekend’s second Superbike race in an effort to spice the championship up.

The sharp end of the grid for race two will now be set by the results from Saturday’s opening encounter, but with a twist. The riders who finish first second and third will be moved back to the third row of the grid and instead start ninth, eighth and seventh. 

Riders who finish fourth, fifth and sixth will be promoted to the front row and start the race from pole, second and third respectively, while those who finish the race seventh, eighth and ninth will start the race fourth, fifth and sixth. The rest of the grid will still be determined by Superpole times.

The announcement comes following a meeting of the Superbike Commission, which is comprised of WSB’s Sporting Director Gregorio Lavilla, the manufacturers’ association’s Takanao Tsubouchi, the FIM’s CCR Director Rezsö Bulcsu, Dorna’s Daniel Carrera and Paul Duparc, Charles Hennekam and Scott Smart from the FIM.

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The two-day race format will remain after reports of an increase in overall weekend attendance, but some changes will be made to the schedule to accommodate the new Supersport 300 series.

WSB will also follow the lead of its sister series MotoGP in banning scooters from riders’ track familiarisation sessions.

World Supersport will see the introduction of flag-to-flag rules, which will mean pit stops in the event of a change in conditions while the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup will become the European Superstock 1000 Championship. 

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