A MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship race can be decided in less than the blink of an eye. For Perugia Timing, which celebrates its 80th anniversary in 2026, keeping track of the world's fastest production-based motorcycles involves an extraordinary combination of wires buried beneath the asphalt, transponders, GPS signals, electronic communication, sophisticated software, and photo-finish technology capable of scanning the finish line thousands of times every second.
Perugia's story began in 1946 in the province of Perugia, building on a tradition of organized sports timekeeping in Italy that stretched back to the 1920s. A key figure in this development was Luigi Burini, who became president of the association and helped pass his knowledge to the next generation, leading to the current organization bearing his name: FICR L. Burini Perugia Timing. Giorgio Giordani, Senior Timekeeper and board member, noted that early timing relied entirely on manual stopwatches with variable human reaction times. The breakthrough came with the chronoprinter at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, followed by the introduction of computers in the 1970s via testing at the nearby Magione circuit, which featured a 1.6-kilometre layout and lap times of around a minute.
In the 1980s, Perugia began developing its own timing software and hardware, including a special interface created by engineer Roberto Lucca. Early programmers feared micro-memory computers couldn't keep up, but they did. Soon after, the transponder revolution arrived, allowing machines to be identified electronically rather than requiring people to manually record every passage. Perugia collaborated with the Dutch company AMB - now part of MYLAPS - and eventually expanded overseas, providing timing at the Sentul circuit in Indonesia in 1994.
Today, a typical WorldSBK circuit features thin black lines crossing the asphalt, concealing a timing loop wire roughly 1-1.5mm in diameter installed two centimetres below the surface. When a motorcycle's transponder passes over it, the two systems communicate in just two milliseconds. A circuit can have fewer than 20 timing loops to monitor sector times, speeds, and pit-lane limits, with networks deployed at locations like Cremona. Everything is synchronised by GPS, avoiding the disastrous data loss once caused by unsynchronised clocks, though the core infrastructure still relies on a wired backbone of fibre, network cable, and copper.
Managing this complex system takes surprisingly few people. A Perugia team arrives as early as Tuesday, starting with three people for initial installation, followed by more personnel on Wednesday to complete testing. By race weekend, the WorldSBK timing operation is managed by a team of around seven people, utilizing RaceLink devices and a wireless network. Modern WorldSBK motorcycles also communicate with their electronic control units, allowing technical marshals to monitor parameters like temperatures to provide early warnings of mechanical failures, though differing manufacturer electronics mean data isn't always directly comparable between bikes.
GPS has similarly transformed tracking rider positions between loops, allowing officials to replay movements and analyze specific corners and sequences. While GPS is not yet accurate enough in WorldSBK to determine every track-limits infringement without cameras, next-generation GPS technology promises centimetre-level accuracy. Ultimately, when riders cross the finish line almost together, Perugia deploys its photo-finish camera system to answer the most fundamental question of all.
