By contrast, in MotoGP Cal Crutchlow is a top-flight rider and occasional winner, but his compatriots Bradley Smith and Scott Redding are both out next year.
Back in Fogarty’s and the series’ glory years, certainly in Britain and sometimes elsewhere, Superbikes did more than just threaten the classic GPs. They drew massively larger crowds and even came uncomfortably close to 500cc two-stroke GP lap times.
When Dorna took over grand prix racing’s commercial rights 25 years ago, something had to be done, for the traditional senior series (older even than F1) was dying on its feet. The motorcycle industry had turned away from two-strokes (whether rightly or wrongly is another argument); and the 500cc racers were isolated objects, existing only in order to exist.
The 500cc class had itself been a mainly British domain. Although the last champion was Barry Sheene back in 1977, Britain held the record for the most wins long afterwards, thanks to the foundation work done by Duke, Surtees, Hailwood et al. But now British riders were following Fogarty into Superbikes. And to many British fans, the newer series already outranked the classic championships.
Dorna, along with the industry, acted in 2002, consigning the two-strokes to oblivion with one-litre four-stroke MotoGP bikes. There was an attempt to keep a distance from Superbikes, but this has been overtaken by events.