And another takes a pass...

 http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article5387

So one can assume this means Kawasaki won't be fielding a factory team
in ASB this year, which means at a factory team level it's Yamaha in,
Honda and Kawasaki out, and Suzuki still sitting on the fence. By
everything we've seen so far, the Suzuki possibilities probably range
from a full factory effort featuring Mladin, Hayden and Young to a
Suzuki-supported Yosh effort featuring Hayden and Young - and my
betting is leaning toward the latter.

No announcement here on Hacking, who has already signed a contract. So
does that mean negotiation has been reopened with him, perhaps out of
necessity (the contract perhaps being specific re ASB and not DSB), or
is he out and maybe Rapp or Davies is in, or they're looking further?

So we have Yamaha focusing on ASB, and Honda (Erion), Kawasaki
(Attack) and Suzuki (M4/EMGO) on DSB through contract teams, but
Pegram (Ducati), Jordan (Suzuki) and Corona (Honda) also in ASB and
Graves (Yamaha) in DSB. And now the second '08 SB factory rider with a
confirmed '09 AMA ride (DiSalvo was the first) - but neither in SB.

It just keeps getting worse...

 

Prolly depends on whether Mat wants to, or not. My guess? Prolly not,
but who knows, maybe he wants to buy another plane, or something..

No ASB for the Hackster means less(bling for Rachel)money, hence
renegotiation..

Worse? Trust me on this, it can get a whole hell of a lot worse, as in
nothing at all and if something on the financial front doesn't change
fairly soon that's probably what we'll be looking at. As critical and
confused as things look today I'd imagine the period after DIS will be
even more so...

 T3 wrote:

Keep spinnin' that ol' "it's the economy, stupid" story, Tom, it worked
for Clinton!

Seriously, there's nothing here that confirms or even suggests
Kawasaki's pullout is because of the economy, although I'm sure that
made it easier, and therefore also harder to justify taking full part in
the DMG abortion of a race series. Here's what PR flack Stjernstrom said
at Soup today:

Q. What were the factors as Kawasaki sees them that led to the release
put out today stating Kawasaki will only race the 600 class in 2009?

A. The main thing for us was looking at what AMA Pro Racing was
planning, the 600 class, clearly, came to the surface as being where
they're headed and I think that's maybe been true for the last couple of
years. What with the Daytona 200 and so forth. I think that is clearly
evident now that where they want ... or where they're putting the
emphasis. This is going to be the premier event there (Daytona) and
they're trying to ... kind of the direction they appear to be headed at
least as far as we can see. So maybe that's our opinion, but that's what
we took away from it.

Q. Reportedly, Kawasaki had issues with the DMG/AMA Superbikes rules
regarding the fuel tank and swingarms on 1000cc machines. Confirm or deny?

A. I don't think that it was anything specific like that, like specific
parts I think that it was more like direction. Basically the 1000 class
now is basically Superstock and so a lot of what we had started a couple
of years ago was changed significantly. So we just looked at--where do
we want to be?--and what makes the most sense? So the decision was made
to focus on the 600. Racing in two what we consider to be "stock"
classes, when the 600 is clearly the focus just didn't seem to make
sense to us.


Now he's putting as positive spin on that as possible, but it's clear
that Kawasaki had finally and simply conceded on the SB class, outwardly
stating what everyone with a brain recognizes - DMG considers DSB the
premier class and that's driven by what works for France at Daytona, no
matter what lies they propagate.

It will be interesting to see how the concessions at Kawi and Honda
impact the decisionmaking at Suzuki and Yosh. Suzuki has been pretty
inflexible on shifting their emphasis from 1000s to 600s, and I believe
the deal that they struck with Ulrich on Young made it sound like they
wouldn't race in DSB, at least Young wouldn't. But it doesn't really pay
to race only Yamaha in ASB, especially with Mladin - a Mat-dominated
season even more boring then the last few would almost certainly kill
off SB for good. They'd almost be better off racing Tommy and Blake in
ASB on a support basis, making the racing closer and saving money in the
process.

For Yamaha this really seems to be starting to backfire, their
calculation that siding with DMG in killing off true SB and replacing it
with something cheaper and SS-like going badly with the other factories
so far taking a pass. Now their big effort, their best riders, are
potentially racing almost no one in SB, while their 2nd-tier guys
potentially get whacked around in DSB. That would be just desserts indeed!

For DMG this is working out pretty much as desired, it would seem, with
the factory teams disappearing, the big-name, big-salary riders' voices
muted, SB fading and middleweight/big twin DSB relatively on the rise.
Daytona uber alles. Of course the series is still a total mess, far from
where it needs to be barely a month from teams packing up for Daytona -
no firm rules, their EEL a disaster, the TV contract rumors suggesting a
package notably worse than what the AMA managed, most tracks still
uncommitted and looking for sponsorship dollars, the economy threatening
to take the whole incredibly shaky structure down in one big collapse.

Be careful what you wish for...

 {Drivel snipage..}

"Got" carried away? Dude, you need to be shrink-wrapped!

Btw, I sorta' liked the tune, 'bout the best thing you've written since
that 1st Qatar race slap-shot and one I actually read all of, maybe you
need to seek an alternative to, well, never mind..


Mark, you didn't want to talk economy last year when this all started,
so it's not surprising you need to diminish it's critical importance
now, but the bottom line, as they say, is pretty much 0's and unless
something breaks in the short term loan market this season could be
"brief" to say the very least..

You need to accept things you can not change, the foremost being that
the day's of racing exclusively by and for the OEM's in the US are
past, deal with it, get over it, or move on, as your continual stream
of venom laced insults aren't doing anything for anyone, except
apparently you, and as usual fall far short of adding substance of note
to any real discussion...



FYI, it's supposed to warm up here this weekend (50-75, sunny) so I'm
thinkin' I'll motor on up to the "WORLD CENTER of RACING" and check-out
the Rolex boy's under the lights, to bad you're in
Califrisco...(heheheheh  suks2bu, huh?;-)

 Mark N points to:


And worse:
http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2009/Jan/090126suzukiinsb.htm

Maybe the Yamahstinkers should just stay home and not
suffer more humiliation at the hands of the anti-Christ
(Mattyboy)


Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.