During a press conference held at Silverstone earlier on today, Pirelli have been confirmed as the sole tyre supplier to the British Superbike series for a further 5 years, taking them up until the end of the 2020 season.
Pirelli has been the sole supplier to the series until 2008, and the new agreement will continue to cover Superbike, Supersport, Superstock 1000 and 600 classes, as well as one marque races such as the Ducati TriOptions Cup.
Stuart Higgs, Series and Race Director of the MCE British Superbike Championship commented:
“We are delighted to confirm Pirelli as the Sole Tyre Supplier and Presenting Sponsor after what has been a competitive tender process. This marks the eighth season working together and in that time we have witnessed a level playing field for riders and teams, combined with a great consistency of product. This year especially we have seen lap records fall spectacularly, which is particularly impressive when you think we have no electronic aids in BSB and that these times have all been achieved on production tyres. We look forward to another five years of working with Pirelli not just on the track but with continued innovative marketing campaigns to strengthen the link between BSB and Pirelli.”
At present Pirelli develop their Diablo Superbike tyres at World Superbike Championship level, before they then become production product which can be purchased by any club racer or trackday rider. These production tyres are the same tyres used by the riders in the British Superbike series, and with 17″ tyres introduced into the BSB paddock in 2014, Pirelli claim the link between race and the road has never been closer.
The 2015 season has seen new lap records set at no less than 7 races so far, and Pirelli will be hoping to break these records along with many others over the next 5 years.
Giorgio Barbier, Racing Activities Director of Pirelli’s Business Unit Moto and Head of Superbike project for the Milanese Company since 2001, said:
“Pirelli is very happy to continue their adventure in this prestigious championship for the next five seasons and to carry on the successful partnership with MSVR. Introduced to the series in 2008 with the primary purpose to reduce the overall costs for teams in the championship, ensure a fairer tyre supply and provide a level playing field, whilst ultimately providing even closer, more thrilling racing. The single tyre formula proposed by Pirelli has since the beginning increased quality and competitiveness, enabling all the riders, teams and motorcycle manufacturers participating to compete for success in the Championship. Year after year BSB has become a reference for all the other national championships and has also created some of the most important riders in the yearbook of the Superbike World Championship. The relationship between the production bike derived World Championship and the British Superbikes has always been strong as we can also notice from the nationality of the first four riders in the World Superbike Championship standings this year. They are all UK riders and all with a past in BSB and for us this is an important message: we will continue supporting promising riders, offering them the chance to do wild cards in some rounds of World Superbike so that they will have the possibility to show their talent to a worldwide audience.”
Find out more about the Pirelli Diablo Superbike here.
