Musical chairs

[k14]

Well now that Toseland is in Tech 3 and the rumours suggest that either michelin or bridgestone will be supplying their tyres. So I'd say he'll be going to fill their second seat. Tamada will be a goner, not sure about Guintoli might go back to 250's, might get another seat.

In WSBK at ten kate I'd put my money on Suofoglu going up to the superbikes, maybe Charpentier too? I doubt Rolfo (although I think he brings a heap of $$ to the team) will continue there. But surely at least one of their supersport champions will get a superbike ride.

[denill]

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies is getting a head start on his MotoGP experience.

The two-time AMA Superbike Champion flew to Japan on Wednesday to get fitted for, then do exploratory laps on, the Suzuki GSV-R800 that he’ll formally test in Sepang on the Monday after the October 21 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Spies, who was flying to Japan for the first time, is to meet the Suzuki brass at the company’s headquarters in Hamamatsu before testing the GSV-R at Suzuki’s Ryuyo Testing Grounds. He returns to Texas on Sunday.

Spies will ride John Hopkins’ bikes in Sepang and work with Hopkins’ crew chief, Stuart Shenton, who guided Kevin Schwantz to his 1993 500cc World Championship, Rizla Suzuki team manager Paul Denning said at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Sepang test may or may not be the only time Spies rides the GSV-R this year. Both Spies and Denning said it was unlikely that he’d ride it again at the tests following the Valencia season finale in early November. The team has a day and a half to test and plenty to accomplish. Loris Capirossi, the newest Rizla Suzuki rider, will be making his debut on the 2008 GSV-R, which Chris Vermeulen will also be anxious to test.

Denning said it “could be difficult, simply because of the crews available. If you’re going to do the job, it has to be done properly. And it’s something we have been looking into, but it may be difficult to facilitate at Valencia.”

[denill]

Take a clean sheet of paper, a set of coloured pencils, and draw a map of the London Underground. Substitute team names for stations – and you get the picture of a much-changed MotoGP rider line-up in 2008!

Actually, a man who is staying right where he is kick-started the jockeying for position that has gone on all year in the MotoGP ranks. As early as the first day of February we learned that Valentino Rossi would not be buying any tickets to ride: the maestro had renewed his Yamaha deal through to the end of 2008.

“The atmosphere in our garage is always relaxed and happy,” said Rossi, “and I think that this is something very special and very difficult to find.” For Yamaha team boss Davide Brivio it was all a matter of trust: “To extend the contract for a further year at the end of a difficult season like the last one (2006) is the greatest demonstration of the trust Valentino has placed in this team,” said Brivio. The five-time premier-class World Champion then became the still point in a rapidly turning world as riders assessed their options for the years ahead.

While one Italian master’s world view was stable, another’s was about to undergo rapid change. If you had felt, before the 2007 season began, that Loris Capirossi would be playing the lead role for Ducati and passing on the accumulated wisdom of 18 years in Grand Prix racing to new arrival Casey Stoner, you would not have been in a minority of one. By the mid-season break, ‘Capirex’, the man who flew the flag for the Italian marque in MotoGP, had seen his Ducati prospects wrecked as the young Aussie streaked towards their first MotoGP title.

So Loris hopped on the blue line: he’s joining Suzuki, an announcement made on August 16. “The moment has come for change, and to try new challenges,” said Capirossi – although that was after his Ducati outfit had confirmed that Marco Melandri was already on the red line – headed for Ducati alongside Stoner in 2008.

So we have two thrilling Italian-Australian partnerships to look forward to as Chris Vermeulen joins forces with Capirossi in the drive to develop the GSV-R into a title-winning machine. Vermeulen was confirmed at Suzuki again in July, with an option for 2009 as well. “The way the development has gone since I first rode the GSV-R in 2005 is incredible,” enthused Vermeulen. “I am sure if we can continue in that direction we will be pushing up to the front every weekend.” Vermeulen’s brilliant maiden win in France this year, and Capirossi’s scintillating win at Motegi in the last round before Phillip Island, confirm there’s a lot to look forward to at the blue station.

By that stage we had already heard that Jorge Lorenzo had got on the blue-and-white line. The Spanish 250cc title-holder announced late in July that he was joining Yamaha in a two-year deal. Described by Yamaha’s Lin Jarvis as ‘a valuable asset for the future’, Lorenzo is still actively engaged in the defence of his 250 title as they head to the Island.

A month later came the news that our own Anthony West was on the green line – given a ticket for 2008 by Kawasaki, for whom he made his MotoGP debut at Donington Park in mid-year as a substitute for Olivier Jacque. “A huge weight off my shoulders,” said Westy, whose unusual tale we shall tell in a later addition to this series. The other man on the green line for next year is Anglo-American John Hopkins, who is quitting Suzuki to partner West at Kawasaki.

That’s because France’s Randy de Puniet is heading the other way. In August De Puniet announced that he is making a return journey on the multi-coloured line to LCR Honda, where he really kick-started his Grand Prix career in the 250cc ranks in 2003-04.

Looking at other main-line stations, there will be no change at the Honda works team: outgoing World Champion Nicky Hayden is contracted through 2008, while Dani Pedrosa, the man up-staged by Stoner as MotoGP’s new young gun, announced last month that he’s staying put for another two years. “Although this year things have not turned out quite as we wanted,” admitted former 125cc and 250cc World Champion Pedrosa, “Honda and I have the spirit to come back next year with renewed motivation and be stronger than ever.”

It’s when we get to the outlying stations that the picture becomes a little fuzzier. Former Superbike World Champion James Toseland has a ticket for Yamaha Tech 3, whose boss Herve Poncharal calls the Englishman’s signing ‘a major coup’. Will Colin Edwards leave the main-line Yamaha outfit to team up with Toseland at Tech 3?

Tech 3 are losing Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli to the satellite Ducati team at Pramac D’Antin. The French rider raised eyebrows with a first-day stand-out performance in Brno earlier this season. “It’s always important to do well, but especially now that contracts are being talked about,” he laughed. A Ducati ride is no joke, and Guintoli has since confirmed his growing confidence with a personal best fourth place at Motegi last time out.

But who will arrive at the satellite Ducati team to work alongside Guintoli? They didn’t wait till season’s end to start making changes: Alex Hofmann’s already gone, thrown off the train after a dismal performance at Estoril, and now we wait to see if another Brit, Chaz Davies, can make the second saddle his in the last three outings of 2007.

Honda Gresini have lost Melandri to Ducati: might they also be on the brink of losing Spain’s Toni Elias? He’s also in the frame for the other Pramac D’Antin ride. On the plus side, Fausto Gresini has already announced a splendid new arrival as he continues his tradition of encouraging young Italian talent. Alex de Angelis is on his way to the Honda team for his own MotoGP debut in 2008.

Lorenzo, De Angelis – and the other man in the top three in the quarter-litre class as we speak, Andrea Dovizioso, is also moving up. Exactly what his final destination will be is unclear at the moment: ‘Dovi’ announced in mid-September that he will definitely join the elite class in 2008, with Honda backing, and possibly with the help of Gianluca Montiron of Konica Minolta Honda.

As the youngsters arrive on their express train, some old-established names may be heading for a slightly slower mode of transport. Alex Barros is not glued to his Pramac D’Antin seat, nor Carlos Checa at Honda LCR. Might the Spaniard replace Toseland on the Superbike stage? What happens to Japanese riders Makoto Tamada and Shinya Nakano? All we know is that anyone who wants one of the few remaining tickets had better get in the queue right now…

[roogazza]

I have great respect for Capirossi, it's been a tough year for him. I can't help but wonder if becoming a dad affected his performances ? With some people it relaxs them but it could have done the opposite ? G.
ps. Thanks again for the info Bill , saves me a lot of surfing.

[denill]

Another article on the subject:

Australia now has three full-time factory-backed MotoGP riders. They all followed different paths to the pinnacle of their sport– and in the case of Ant West, it was a long and winding road indeed.

When Kawasaki signed Anthony West in mid-season, and later confirmed him as a MotoGP rider for 2008, the Japanese outfit’s Competitions Manager Michael Bartholemey observed: “His route to a factory team in MotoGP was not an orthodox one.” You can say that again, Mr. Bartholemy…

The itinerary seems familiar enough at the outset. Young West, born in 1981, cut his teeth on dirt tracks in the early 90s, finishing third in the Australian 100cc championship in 1994. By 1996 he was a dual national champion, in 125cc dirt track competition and 125cc long-track to boot.

A year later he was a winner on foreign soil, too, taking out the 80cc Bronze Cup at Suzuka in Japan before 1998 took him into quarter-litre racing back at home. In 1998 West won the Australian 250cc Production title, and took third overall in the 125s for good measure, earning the award as ‘Australian-based Rider of the Year’.

It seems hard to believe, but that – nine years ago – was also when ‘Ant’ first flung the leg over a Grand Prix bike. Check the Phillip Island 125cc Entry List for that year and you will see his name against the #46 Christopher West Plumbing Honda. Ant qualified it on the seventh row but came off at the halfway mark of the race.

In 1999 West, with some help from Australia’s multiple World Champion Mick Doohan, got a crack at the World Championship with the Australian-supported Shell Advance team on a Honda NSR250, finishing the season in 12th place. Next year he had climbed six places in the World Championship standings, and for 2001 the big-time beckoned: Ant took the plunge and tried the 500cc World Championship (as it was in those pre-MotoGP days), again on a privateer Honda with Dee Cee Jeans Racing..

Six minor points-scoring finishes took ‘Westy’ to 18th place overall, but it was not the springboard to greater things. In fact he was out of the World Championship scene altogether in 2002. There was nothing for it but to go back to the quarter-litre ranks for 2003 – and when Italy’s Zoppini Abruzzo team offered him a lifeline on their 250cc Aprilia, this became the year of Ant’s first real break-through.

In a three-race mid-year spell from Spain to Holland to England, West was never off the podium. At the track known as ‘The Cathedral’, Assen in the Netherlands, West posted his first World Championship victory aboard an Aprilia, heading home Franco Battaini and Sylvain Guintoli – himself now a member of the MotoGP ranks. He said at the time it was his father, Chris, who had spurred him on: “He told me to stop whining and reminded me how I used to ride the bike – like a real Aussie.” West thrilled a lot of other real Aussies with a splendid second place at the Island from 11th on the grid.

Yet despite a seventh-place finish overall, no factory ride emerged for 2004. And unlike 2003, his season back on the 250 Aprilia ended in dramatic fashion at his home track with what some observers called ‘the crash of the century’. It happened at Turn One on Friday morning, when West was travelling at around 265 km/h. One broken arm, one fractured wrist and multiple cuts and bruises later he was out for the rest of the year.

It looked as if a new dawn had come for West’s Grand Prix hopes when he got the offer to campaign a 250cc KTM in 2005. The Austrian company was moving up the ranks after a successful entry into the 125cc World Championship – after all, Casey Stoner had given them a maiden 125 victory in Sepang and finished on the Phillip Island podium late in 2004.

But West waited… and waited… and the 250 project scarcely got off the ground. A frustrated Ant accepted one-off rides on an Aprilia at Le Mans and a Honda at Assen before finally getting his hands on the KTM at Assen – and promptly planted it on the podium in second spot, ahead of Stoner himself, by now on the LCR Aprilia. Four fairly dispiriting races later, he’d had enough and for 2006 he joined Kiefer Bos Racing on a privateer Aprilia. Best result seventh, overall position 11th: not the stuff World Championship dreams are made of…

With no MotoGP offer in sight, Ant accepted the inevitable and started 2007 on a Matteoni Aprilia in the quarter-litre class. But his road took an unexpected turning when compatriot Kevin Curtain was injured and West was called in to deputise for Yamaha in the World Supersport Championship.

West came through to finish third at Monza in his first race for the team. He won his second, at Silverstone – and his third, at Misano! When Olivier Jacque stepped down from his Kawasaki MotoGP ride in mid-year, West got the chance to test the green machine at Barcelona and impressed Kawasaki so much the ride was offered to the Australian for the rest of the year.

“It was a fun experience,” West said of his first taste of the Ninja ZX-RR800. “Not as difficult as I thought it would be and much less aggressive than what I had expected. The sliding was predictable, and it was just a lot easier than riding the 250cc – but so fast down the straight that you don’t have time to wave at the crowd!”

The rest, as they say, is history. Fastest in warm-up for his debut race at Donington Park, West got up to fourth, came off but re-mounted to finish 11th. He earned high praise from Bartholemy for his performance next time out at Assen – a favourite place of West’s – where Ant finished ninth. “Anthony rode a fantastic race,” said the Kawasaki man. “He’s only had a matter of hours on the bike in the dry but he’s a fighter, battling with Checa, Hofmann and Melandri. It was a fantastic job.”

West has never been out of the points since, and at Motegi he led the race only to be called in for a drive-through for jumping the start. “I could have done so much better,” West lamented. “It was great to lead the race but I'm angry I jump-started. The ride through lost me a lot of time and then I didn't know about changing the bikes because I've never done it before. When I did come in, I stalled and that lost me even more time. I didn't know what was going on and it was pretty nerve-wracking. But the bike felt great today and I felt strong, too, which is why I was able to get to the front. Considering I had to stop twice and stalled the bike, I guess seventh's not too bad!"

No indeed. Just like the news in late August that West would be riding the Kawasaki in 2008 as well. “This is definitely something I’ve been stressing about: whether I can stay in MotoGP and if so, for which team,” he admitted. “But this really is the best opportunity for me, to stay with Kawasaki, as I’m really happy here.” At last… And for 2008, West is looking forward to working with a new team-mate: “It will be cool to be in a team with John Hopkins, too, as I know him pretty well and we get along together. He’s riding really well at the moment, so hopefully I can push him next year.”

For now, though, there’s unfinished business at Phillip Island, and the thrill of being one of three Aussies on ‘works’ bikes in front of a patriotic crowd – and maybe with time to give them a wave. “I’m just so glad I kept trying and stuck at it,” said West back in August. So are we, Ant, so are we…

[denill]

The following release is from Hannspree Ten Kate Honda:

HANNspree Ten Kate Honda reveals 2008 dream team

Following weeks of speculation, HANNspree Ten Kate Honda is pleased to announce its full rider line-up for the 2008 World Superbike and Supersport Championships.

The Netherlands-based team will run a three-man squad in the Superbike class to include MotoGP contender Carlos Checa, current World Supersport Champion Kenan Sofuoglu and defending British Superbike Champion Ryuichi Kiyonari.

Checa has had a consistently successful career in the 250cc, 500cc and MotoGP championships. The Spaniard has 24 podium finishes under his belt and hopes to add to this tally in the World Superbike series.

Sofuoglu has already proved his riding talent by claiming the 2007 World Supersport crown. The Turkish rider had his first taste of victory on the Honda CBR1000RR when he clinched a race win in the Dutch Superbike Championship at Assen in September.

Kiyonari is already more than familiar with the 1000cc machine, having ridden for the factory-supported HM Plant Honda team in the British Superbike Championship since 2005. The 2006 champion is leading this year's series with one round remaining.

The 2008 HANNspree Ten Kate Honda World Supersport team will consist of Australian rider Andrew Pitt and current British Superbike star Jonathan Rea.

Former World Supersport Champion Pitt will return to the series with the aim of reclaiming the title and securing a seventh consecutive Supersport win for Ten Kate Honda.

Ulsterman Rea will join HANNspree Ten Kate Honda from the British Superbike Championship - where he is the youngest ever rider to secure a pole position, podium and race win.

Following the incredible feat of winning the 2007 World Superbike and Supersport Championships, HANNspree has made the decision to renew its title sponsorship deal with Ten Kate Honda until 2010. With such impressive talent on board, HANNspree Ten Kate Honda looks set for a successful 2008 season.

Ronald ten Kate - Team Manager

"After such a successful 2007 season, we wanted to build a team that brings the same kind of success for 2008 and beyond. This is why we have chosen to go with some very young riders in both the Superbike and Supersport class. We are confident that we can do well in developing these riders. We are really happy that after one year working with HANNspree they are confident enough in the team's work and ability to renew the contract for three years. We share the same goals and ambitions and are very much looking forward to 2008."

Fabio Scatola - Vice President of HANNspree Europe

"I am pleased that we have such great talent signed up for 2008. We have had an incredible first year with Ten Kate Honda and we are looking forward to achieving similar success in the years to come."

[roogazza]

Checa finally fading ? Bill, I read somewhere he brings lots of money with him ? The Turk is hot property though.
I'm surprised they aren't calling some of the hot talent from the KB site, if you read the racing forum ???? !!! (Tui Ad.) G.

[denill]

Checa finally fading ? Bill, I read somewhere he brings lots of money with him ? The Turk is hot property though.
I'm surprised they aren't calling some of the hot talent from the KB site, if you read the racing forum ???? !!! (Tui Ad.) G.

Yerah Gaz. It's looking like WSBK is the grazing paddock where the old MotoGP riders are turned out to. Bit of a shame really as it stops young talent coming thru.

But. How long before the Turk goes to MotoGP??

A bit before any kiwi hot talent from the KB site will - I'm afraid

[denill]

From - www.mcnews.com.au/

Chris Vermeulen took some time out from his appearances this weekend at the Australian Motorcycle Expo to chat with Stuart Sykes.

Q & A with Chris Vermeulen

Last year Chris Vermeulen took his first MotoGP podium finish at Phillip Island. This year at Le Mans the Aussie achieved his maiden MotoGP victory. Next target: the world title…

Q: Chris, it’s not hard to pick the main highlight from 2007 so far: when you climbed up on the top step of the podium in France, did it feel like you belonged there?

CV: Yes, definitely! I was so excited to be up there, not just for me but for Suzuki – it had been such a long time for them. (Chris’s Le Mans victory was the first by a Suzuki rider since Sete Gibernau won in Valencia in 2001.)

Q: Twice this season you have been the ‘2’ in an Aussie 1-2 finish behind Casey Stoner, in the USA and at the San Marino Grand Prix. At that Misano race you said you felt you could catch him, but added that perhaps you were kidding yourself. Can you catch the new World Champion in the next couple of years?
CV: Yes, I really think we can – and hopefully Phillip Island is the first place where we can prove it.

Q: When you re-signed for Suzuki, you described the development of the GSV-R since you started with the team as ‘incredible’. Taking the start as Everest base camp, how high up the mountain are you now – and what will it take to get to the top?

CV: We’re three-quarters of the way up the mountain, I think – but getting to the top is the hardest bit. For us it’s a question of exiting the corners: there are a few different ways of achieving that. We’ve got the horsepower with the GSV-R but getting it all down to the ground is what we’re working on.
Q: Yet it seems, from the outside, as if you’ve taken a backward step in the last couple of races. Anything to worry about?

CV: We had a problem with the bike in Portugal, a really big vibration we just couldn’t get rid of. But we didn’t have that in Japan. At Motegi, on the start line, it was a really strange thing: the ECU just failed before the start. It was strange, but it’s something Suzuki won’t allow to happen again.

Q: We’re near the end of the first 800cc season. Has it helped Suzuki and Chris Vermeulen? Has it been good for the sport?

CV: Suzuki prepared for the change very early – the last 990cc bike I rode was made to go into the 800 era, it was just a matter of dropping an engine in, so in that sense it didn’t help. Me? Not really: I really enjoyed the 990 bikes and their brute horsepower. And the sport? I personally think it’s been a step backwards. I know a lot of people don’t agree with me, but in my view there were different ways to ride a 990 bike, and when, say, the tyre had gone off you could change your style of riding to get round that. With the 800 there’s only one way to ride and that’s with a lot of corner speed.

Q: The MotoGP World Championship is a prototype series where it’s all about the competitive edge – yet we are in the midst of a debate about switching to a control tyre. What’s your view?

CV: Should we switch to a control tyre? No, for the sake of the sport, we shouldn’t. Michelin, Bridgestone and Dunlop are competing, trying to develop tyres as best they can to pass on to road users. With a control tyre that development is lost.

Q: In 2008 you lose ‘Hopper’ – John Hopkins - but gain Loris Capirossi as a team-mate. Will that make any difference, and how do you view the multiple rider switches for next season?

CV: I get on really well with John, he’s been a great team-mate for two years and together we’ve developed the Suzuki a lot. But having said that, Loris coming on board is a huge positive both for me and the team. He’s been involved in the development of that Ducati for years and he will bring information with him to the team. And for me, he’s got so much experience that I can’t think of anyone better to learn from. I was expecting wholesale changes because a lot of people were on two-year deals and once a couple moved that freed everything up.

Q: We can’t let you go without asking about the Island. What difference will there be on an 800cc machine – and can you climb one step higher than last year?
CV: That’s the first aim, to go one step higher! We tested at Phillip Island in January with a number of other teams and on the 800 I lapped consistently quicker than on the 990. It doesn’t have as much speed down the straight but the pure lap times were faster. That’s down to the corner speed, especially on the last part of the lap. I’m really looking forward to going back.

Chris Vermeulen:
• Aged 25
• MotoGP debut Phillip Island 2005 (Honda): qualified 14th, finished 11th, and finished 11th again in his only other ride that season in Turkey.
• Full-time in MotoGP with Suzuki in 2006; two pole positions in Turkey and the USA; 13 points-scoring finishes in 17 starts that year, including his first podium, 2nd at Phillip Island
• Stayed with Suzuki for 2007; maiden win at Le Mans; pole position at Assen; currently 5th in World Championship, 4 points behind team-mate Hopkins.
• Next weekend’s race will be his 35th MotoGP start
• His Le Mans win this year made Chris the first rider to score race victories in all three four-stroke racing disciplines – Superbikes, Supersports and MotoGP.

The 2007 GMC Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix • Phillip Island • 12 – 14 October.

[denill]

From www.superbikeplanet.com

Rossi's Ultimatum
by dean adams
Saturday, October 13, 2007

Reportedly, Valentino Rossi has recently laid an ultimatum at the feet of Yamaha: Build a more competitive bike or he'll ride elsewhere in 2009.

The BBC quoted Rossi as saying, "Yamaha have to show me something now, make a good bike for 2008. If nothing changes, I can look for another opportunity."

Rossi's current Yamaha contract is up at the end of the '08 season. Will Ducati's dominance of the title continue?

To be honest, it isn't just Yamaha that has grossly underestimated the capabilities of the Ducati MotoGP machine in 2007. Nearly all of the Japanese manufacturers have stood trackside and watched Ducati and Casey Stoner pull yards on them any time the bikes leave the pit lane. In a nutshell, what relatively tiny little Ducati has done is build a screamer 800cc engine that has both terrific power and the ability to do race distance on the small fuel allotment now given MotoGP bikes. Neither Yamaha or Honda have been able to pull this off in 2007.

Rossi seems to feel that Yamaha have been too conservative, telling the Beeb: "If we want to win the title again then we need the people in Japan to put in more effort. We need to be more aggressive and brave in the development decisions."

The last eighteen months have been an interesting period of Rossi watching. He's gone from winning multiple titles in a row, recognized as the best rider in racing (and quite possibly the best of all time) to losing the 2006 title to Honda and Nick Hayden, surprisngly crashing out in the final race of the season. And—what's worse—he's now had to concede the 2007 title to Stoner with three races remaining. This is not a trend curve Rossi wants to see continue.

To be honest, it isn't just Yamaha that has grossly underestimated the capabilities of the Ducati MotoGP machine in 2007. Nearly all of the Japanese manufacturers have stood trackside and watched Ducati and Casey Stoner pull yards on them any time the bikes leave the pit lane.
Certainly his home-country pals at Ducati tearing the title away and their exploits being splashed across Italian television and newspapers, while his troubles slide into 'and in other MotoGP news ...' territory hasn't gone down well with Rossi. In his book, What If I'd Never Tried It?, Rossi dismissed Ducati Corse as a mini-HRC; too antiseptic, too concerned with engineering and not focused on building a team around a rider. That faint sound you now hear in the background is Ducati race boss Claudio Domenicali chuckling.

On the plus side, Yamaha have done an admirable job of introducing their pneumatic-valve engine mid-season this year--with very limited in-season testing available to them. This bodes well for Yamaha being able to unleash the hounds and chase down Ducati next season.

[denill]

Biaggi is gone - Again.

The following is from the Alstare Suzuki World Superbike team...


“With reference to the current situation Team Alstare is facing regarding sponsorship, it is with regret and sadness that the team announces that it will not renewing its contract with Max Biaggi for 2008.

Suzuki and Team Alstare would like to thank Max Biaggi for his great performances and results achieved during the 2007 season, and also for his technical contribution.

Suzuki and Team Alstare would like to wish Max Biaggi all the best for the future.”

[Cajun]

Biaggi is gone - Again.

The following is from the Alstare Suzuki World Superbike team...


“With reference to the current situation Team Alstare is facing regarding sponsorship, it is with regret and sadness that the team announces that it will not renewing its contract with Max Biaggi for 2008.

Suzuki and Team Alstare would like to thank Max Biaggi for his great performances and results achieved during the 2007 season, and also for his technical contribution.

Suzuki and Team Alstare would like to wish Max Biaggi all the best for the future.”

damn that sucks, he just getting to know the bike and tracks, did pretty well really in his first year, and he gone already

[denill]

damn that sucks, he just getting to know the bike and tracks, did pretty well really in his first year, and he gone already

Yeah, it will take a lot of interest away from SBK.
I am not a Biaggi fan but I always enjoyed seeing him fall on his face - if he did. It wasn't that often though. He made a bigger dick of himself in MotoGP.

[roogazza]

He might have just hung on too long Bill ? Hanging out for just a little bit too much dosh !! Great rider , but there lots of others who probably will do the job for less..... where to now ???? Gaz.

[denill]

He might have just hung on too long Bill ? Hanging out for just a little bit too much dosh !! Great rider , but there lots of others who probably will do the job for less..... where to now ???? Gaz.

Looking a bit like the scrap heap Gaz??