And, in fact, where does this idea that GP racing being reserved for prototypes come from anyway? In earlier times, manufactures raced with modified versions of their production engines. If you look for historic precedents that make it clear that the FIM did not originally intend to differentiate between prototypes and production-derived machines, there are many examples… Jack Findlay became the first ever 500 winner on a two-stroke when he won the Ulster in 1971 on a modified version of the Suzuki TR500 twin.
Slotting Suzuki and Kawasaki engines into Seeley frames was a smart way to go 500 racing in the early seventies. And when Findlay and Danielli Fontana (of brake fame) got together to build their Suzuki TR500-powwered “JADA” there was no reason for the FIM to question whether this was a “prototype.” Had GP racing engines been four strokes instead of turning exclusively to two-stroke power (with the exception of the oval-piston Honda NR500 from 1979 through 1981), we would certainly have seen direct crossovers from production to racing or from racing to production.
But when Dorna petitioned the FIM to change from the traditional 500cc two stroke class (which was never a 'two stroke class' at all, but merely a class where two strokes had proven the more successful engine type under a strict capacity limit of 500cc) to admit large capacity four strokes, the rights-holders of the World Superbike Championship feared that big road engines from bikes homologated for World Superbike would be slotted into prototype frames and that manufacturers might choose to concentrate on the GP series as a way of promoting their roadbikes.
As a result of this concern new contracts were written or old contracts were amended to protect SBK from encroachments and the Flammini brothers, Maurizio and Paolo Alberto, began to say that their agreements with the FIM assured them that production-based engines could not be used to power GP machines on any kind.
