Factory SBK

- AMA confirm 2 years of more or less the current rules
- Yamaha start winning in WSB
- Kawasaki almost on the pace in WSB
- Chris Walker goes to Japan to test with the Kawasaki factory and
Yanagawa to try and find the last 5%

So what's Yamaha's and Kawasaki's excuse going to be now for ignoring
AMA SBK for next year?

 

And your point is?

 

Right. But Haga and to a lesser extent Pitt have shown that you can take
a road Yamaha, the race kit and beat the factory Suzuki. And now the
factory is providing more help.

PSG-1 have shown that you can take a road Kawasaki (as Scott Smart did
last year in BSB) and beat Kagayama on the factory Suzuki, beat the
Ducatis and get within range of Troy. And now the factory is helping.

And as Miguel says, it was more difficult than they thought and they
lacked testing. But they're now nearly back to where they were last
year.

And just like Suzuki in WSB and AMA, they were coming from a year's
experience and/or lots of testing. With two riders who are pretty good
and had also been there for a year.

Which is as much to do with the riders as the team or bike.

Well either you compete or you don't. My only point is that both bikes
can be competitive if you put the effort in and get the riders. Last
year's excuse was that the AMA wouldn't sit still and kept changing the
rules. But now that's not credible any more. So the question comes down
to whether Yamaha and Kawasaki USA want to put the effort in or if they
want something handed to them on a plate by Japan.

Well either you go for the main event and get coverage even if you don't
win or you're part of the sideshow. Do Kawasaki USA and especially
Yamaha USA see themselves as part of the sideshow?

Well, if you ain't factory you ain't shit. Which has been your tune for
some time.

 

Corser didn't look like he was cruising at Brands. And I'm not denying
that Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki weren't caught on the back foot and were
not ready a the beginning of the year. What I'm saying is that half a
season later they've caught up and shown that it can be done.

Both Corser with Alstare and Mladin with Yosh benefited enormously this
year from a great deal of testing done by Japan last year. Corser has
said that having a developed bike at the beginning of the year was a big
part of his early wins.

In the last week Walker has been testing with Yanagawa in Japan c/o the
factory. It may not be much but it's something.

Then everyone else might as well give up and just let him have the
championship. It's like saying there's no point in spending money in
MotoGP because Rossi's going to win everything anyway.

So how do you get all the factories to have some representation (even
semi-private and underfunded) in the premier class?