WSBK Rulebook Updated – All Superbikes to Follow EVO Regulations by 2015

Dennis Chung
by Dennis Chung

World Superbike Championship racebikes will run on completely stock production engines by 2015, according to new regulations released by the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM). The hope is the new “EVO” stock regulations will reduce development costs, allowing more teams to compete in the WSBK championship.

Earlier this summer, the FIM announced a new “EVO” sub-category that will enter the series in 2014, featuring machines running stock engines as in the Superstock 1000 class. For next season only, EVO machines will compete against non-EVO bikes that can be modified to current WSBK rules, but from 2015 on, EVO machines will become the new standard for the Superbike class.

Under EVO rules, engines must remain the same as their production versions, with no modifications allowed to cylinders, camshafts, pistons, connecting rods, crankshafts or crankcases. Aftermarket modifications are not allowed under EVO rules, Fuel injection systems will also be identical to their stock homologated production versions.

Teams may still use aftermarket engine control unit (ECU) hardware kits, but the kits must cost no more than 1.5 times the price of the original stock ECU hardware. Teams will remain free to modify the ECU software, whether they use the stock hardware or an aftermarket one.

EVO engines will be sealed and distributed by the FIM Superbike Technical Director. Teams will be allotted a limit of six engines per rider for the entire season; should a rider need to use any additional engines for a race, they will be penalized by having to start in the last position of the grid for that race, and the following race (if that next race is in the same season). Wild card riders will be limited to two sealed engines during the rounds they take part.

[Source: FIM]

Dennis Chung
Dennis Chung

Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.

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