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On the
occasion of this important anniversary the Italian company
with headquarters in Milan has designed an exclusive version
of the tyres the riders will use for Superpole on Saturday
with six silver coloured stripes on the tread pattern and a
celebratory tag on the side with the Italian flag containing
the 25 years logo. |
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Milan, 3 May 2012 – In
2012 the World Superbike Championship, first held in 1988,
celebrates its 25th anniversary and Pirelli, present in this
prestigious competition from its inception and sole supplier
for it since 2004, has decided to honour this important
event by creating an exclusive version of the Superpole tyre
the riders will use at Monza on 5 May, to decide the
starting order for the races on Sunday 6 May. The Diablo
Superbike tyre with the supersoft Superpole compound, in
this exclusive “Silver Stripes” version, has six silver
coloured stripes on the tread, the colour traditionally
associated with 25 year anniversaries, and a label on the
side which depicts the Italian flag and the commemorative
logo designed by Infront to celebrate the World Superbike
Championship's quarter of a century milestone.
“All of our knowledge begins with
experience, just as knowing means remembering, and so we
remember when we at Pirelli got back into world motorcycle
competitions: this was after years of minor activity and the
historical Grand Prix races with Gilera, Guzzi, etc. had
been forgotten ” said Giorgio Barbier, Pirelli Moto Racing
Director and part of the Superbike project from its start at
the end of the 1980's, “...after the first slicks evolved in
the early eighties on a National and European level, diving
into the new World Superbike adventure in 1988 was a choice
of passion and courage.
We chose team Rumi, outgoing World
champion and its rising star, American rider Fred Merkel. A
hard year, full of excitement, disappointments and
successes: a championship which was won in the last round in
New Zealand against Mertens who would later go on to become
a Pirelli rider. Since then, the Pirelli sports identity in
the motorcycle world has once again been a culture of
constant undertaking and commitment.”
The long partnership with World
Superbike has allowed Pirelli to develop a series of
products which have been exemplified for 10 years in the
Diablo range and which are continuously updated thanks to
the factory derivatives platform. The experience gained
there guides many current choices:
Motocross, Enduro, as well as Rally
and finally a return to F1 send a clear signal of what
Pirelli's commitment is in the Motorsport world.
“This” adds Barbier, “is certainly a
very important milestone, not only for Infront Motor Sports
and the World Superbike Championship, but for the entire two
wheeled sport competition world. In spite of the economic
crisis during the 1990's and in recent years, the World
Championship continued to grow consistently both in terms of
visibility and prestige, carving out a major role for itself
in international motorcycling. The Flammini brothers'
project showed itself from the very beginning to be a
winner, attracting important riders that would go on to
become legends. Pirelli believed in this project from the
beginning, and from 2004 they were chosen as sole official
supplier for all four classes of World Superbike, adding
their contribution to the excitement that these races
provide fans every weekend. We are therefore pleased to be
able to celebrate this event together with Infront and all
the others involved and we are confident that the World
Superbike Championship will continue to grow in the years to
come”.
For further evidence of the important
role Pirelli has in increasing the quality of the show
provided for the World Superbike Championship fans, one
needs only to think that, since the beginning of Pirelli's
involvement as sole tyre supplier, the championship title
has been decided an amazing three times in the last round of
the season (in 2004, 2007 and 2009) and five times during
the penultimate weekend. |
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While in the open
championship (pre-2004) only three manufacturers managed to
earn the title in more than 16 years, in 8 years of single
tyre seasons, 5 of the 8 motorcycle manufacturers
participating (including Petronas) earned at least one
title: Ducati, Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha and Aprilia. Thanks to
the continuous improvements in tyre performance, from the
first season the average race times have decreased year
after year, determining an average reduction in race time of
-0.3 second per year. About 30
Pirelli patents stem from the WSBK experience, patents that
have to do with various aspects of tyre technology and which
effect the increase of the contact area (EPT), tread design,
compounds and processes. Many of the latest products
introduced on the market, such as the Diablo Supercorsa SP,
Diablo Rosso Corsa and the Diablo Rosso II, contain elements
which are drawn from these technologies in order to provide
more advanced products to the consumer for use in daily
riding, whether on or off the track. |
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