Your probably right about the maintenance on a R6 being less Tim, they are also less hassle when it comes to changing gearing for different tracks, no quick change sprocket carrier need, just the sprockets and no ride height to worry about. Plus the major saving on not having to replace cambelts.
Last time out which was Darley moor I was one second a lap slower on my R6 than I was on my 916 Strada, with the R6 in Proddy spec (No tuning, no rearsets etc) where as the 916 has 54mm Exhaust, cast floating brakes, Radial M/cylinder, Harris rearsets etc. And that was my first time racing the R6.
I will be comparing the two bikes again at Donington this coming Saturday, to find out if a bit more time on the R6 will close the gap in lap times.
I suspect even in proddy trim the R6 is a better short circuit bike than my old V&M CBR600, which allowed me to lap Brands Indy circuit in 57 secs back in 1999, so I would hope to go quicker on the R6.
And as for on the road check out the bike in 25th place in the 1000cc Proddy TT (
http://www.iomtt.com/results/2003/Prod.pdf ) I know it says 1000 Yamaha, but I can assure you its my R6 and yes the organisers do know we got caught, hence no Bronze replica or start money for that race. Just needsa a bloddy good rider to get the best out of one and of course a bit of tuning wouldn't hurt