British Superbike bosses have begun the crackdown on potential electronics tampering in the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship by wheeling in a military-trained data expert to look into ECUs.

Accusations of illegal tampering, or flashing, have been flying around the paddock so series director Stuart Higgs has taken action and this weekend has examined all the Kawasaki ECUs competing at Thruxton.

bikesportnews.com was given exclusive access to the checking process in the circuit’s scrutineering bay after qualifying last night as Higgs explained the process.

“We have identified where cheating could occur with flashed ECUs and have brought in a data expert with a military background to interrogate all the Kawasaki ECUs this weekend to identify if any tampering has ocurred,” said Higgs.

“The process is slightly different with BMW but we are working them. If we have suspicions of cheating, the ECU in question will be sent for interrogation in Germany and they will let us know what is going on within 24 hours.

“We are now ahead of the game but will remain vigilant because it is bad for the championship if any of these kinds of activity are allowed to go on.”

ECU flashing is basically re-writing the homologated road bike ECU’s software with your own parameters and, if you are clever enough and have the correct software, installing any number of other parameters to improve the bike’s electronics for fuelling, ignition timing, traction control etc.

Higgs and his team are using comparison software to measure standard road ECUs with those in the Superstock 1000 class and any deviation from the stock item is deemed to be non-compliant. Even markers that make it look like the ECU software is being used, such as serial numbers, will be picked up by the new operations.