> But I'm confused about the differences between the organizations
> they race for as well?
GP[500, 250, 125] = FIM World Motorcycle Championship, this
is the two wheel equivalent of F1. Three classes are run (with
a fourth, sidecar racing existing in some sort of strange FIM
sanctioning netherworld). The classes are distinguished by
maximum displacement (the 500 = 500cc) and minimum
weight allowed. Other than that, as in F1, it is a spend what
you like to go as fast as you can. Like F1, GP motorcycle
racing has a long and storied history dating back to 1949.
Official links for finding out more are:
http://www.dorna.com
http://www.motograndprix.com
WSBK = World Superbike Championship, this series is more
akin to a touring car championship in that the motorcycles
raced bear more than a passing resemblance to those that
are available to the consumer. Four classes are run -
Superbike, Supersport, Superstock, and Sidecar. The
Superbike series is based on homologated production based
machinery which then can be modified according to
a fairly liberal rules set. Homologation is a strange
rule where at least X (50?) bikes of the motorcycle in
question have to be available for sale to the consumer
by a certain date. I'm not entirely sure to the rules,
but I believe they revolve around keeping the motor
displacement constant and not touching the frame.
The actual maximum allowable displacement for the
engines is split according to the number of cylinders the
bike has (four = 750cc, two = 1000cc, one = not likely
to happen).
Supersport is a junior class to Superbike where again
the bikes run are based on production machinery. The
modification rules are far more strict which means the
bikes are far closer to what you can actually buy than
the Superbikes are. The maximum allowable displacement
for the engines are gain split according to cylinders
(four = 600cc, two = 750cc). Not entirely sure
about the rules, but I think you can blueprint the
motor, replace the exhaust system, replace the
bodywork, remove the lights, replace the rider
subframe assembly, run different brake pads. They
also run on non-slick tires and I think they don't run
on race fuel.
Superstock is a further tightening of the rules,
but this time applied to larger displacement engines
(four = 750cc, two = 1000cc).
Sidecar is a creature entirely unto itself.
Although the premise of racing tweaked out production
machinery is not new, WSBK as a series is rather new
with the first 'world' series taking place in 1988. The
official link for finding out more is:
http://www.worldsbk.com
AMA SB = American Motorcyclist Association Superbike Championship
The much longer running U.S. variant of WSBK. Pretty
much the same concept as the 'borrowed' WSBK one
described above. There are no real differences in the
Superbikes, Supersport in the U.S. is slightly different in
that race fuel is run but a few less overall modifications
are allowed. The AMA also forces Supersport riders to
run on D.O.T tires in the rain unlike the Europeans which
allow the bikes to be run on purpose built rain tires.
The Superstock class is renamed 750 Supersport in
the U.S. and we ditch sidecars in favor of Formula
Extreme (a run whatever you like fully tweaked
production based series), 250 GP (similar to the
FIM 250cc GP although quite a few rungs down the
ladder), and Pro Thunder (or own beast entirely
unto itself).
The official link for finding out more is:
http://www.ama-cycle.org/prorace/
Apologies in advance for any mistakes.
- George
