A meeting at this weekend's Catalan Grand Prix has ended w♊ith the MSMA (Motorcycle Sports Manufacturers' Association) responding to Dไorna's proposal for a new four-stroke class, to replace 250GP from 2011, by naming 600cc four-cylinders as its preferred choice.

The decision was reached by a majority verdict and follows previous suggestions that 650cc or 500cc twin-cylinders s🉐hould succeed the quarter-litre twoꦑ-strokes.

The 600cc proposal will now be examꩵined further by the other members of the Grand Prix Commission - FIM, IRTA and Dorna - with the next meeting to be held at the Dutch TT later this mꦗonth.

The main difficulty for the new class will be to avoid conflict with the World Superspor🔥t Championship - which believes it has exclusive rights to the use of production-based 600cc machines in a world championship - whilst keeping costs for the new class as low as possible.

During an FIM Press Conference in May 2003, chaired by then president Frꦉancesco Zerbi, the following differences between MotoGP and WSBK were highlighted by Zerbi in an effort to prove that there was room for both championships to continue, despite MotoGP having switched to four-stroke machinery from 2002 onwards.

"World Superbike represents the competitive tradition of the products on sale and there𓂃fore, the tool to promote specific models thro🅠ugh racing which, although technologically sophisticated, maintain a direct link with the excellence of sports production;

"MotoGP r🔯epresents the peak of technology, encouraging development and promotion of the manufacturer's image through the exclusive use of prototype bikes," Zerbi declared.

FGSport reacted positively to those words and, in a statement listing ဣ𒆙the implications of this distinction, made the following reference to World Supersport:

"The World Supersport Championship will continue to remain an exclusive property of FGSport. Should new categories be introduced into other World Championships in future, substituting existing classes, the machines competing would nevertheless be prototypes not derived from the productio𓃲n machines."

In order to avoid conflict with FGSport, it will thus be necessary for the new 600cc grand prix class to prove that it will use "prototypes not der🌠ived from production machines" - no easy task if costs are to be kept as low as possible.