Now that both major motorcycle road racing series have finished their series for the year, it’s time to reflect on the highs and lows of the seasons, and I’m going to start with the “lows”
Apart from the dismal performance of Marc Melandri on the “works” Ducati, the most embarrassing season belonged to the “works” Kawasaki MotoGp team. Last, or 2nd last on every grid and last or near it in every MotoGp. What the hell is going on there?
The picture in WSBK/WSS is no better with the not-so-big K being perpetual cellar-dwellers in both of those classes as well. Is there a pattern emerging here?
In fact the only place where Kawasaki seemed to do any good at all was in the AMA, but even there their performances were patchy at best.
What IS going on?
Well, I’m no “insider” but it’s pretty obvious. KHI just isn’t spending the money to make their bikes competitive. Their budget conservatively is around 10% of Honda’s total spend, for example (or so I have been told by someone who has some ears inside the paddock) No money = no development. No development = no results. Put simply, Kawasaki Heavy Industries sees motorcycle racing as a very minor part of its overall operations and funds it accordingly. You only have to notice that there are no “official” teams in the WSBK at all, merely privateer teams receiving some factory assistance. Nothing wrong with that scenario either, if it’s done right. After all, Ten Kate is in exactly the same position.
No, it boils down to a lack of commitment to motorcycle racing. And, as such, it results in perplexing and sometimes completely stupid decisions. And Kawasaki MotoGp made two MAJOR ones this year.
1. They failed to act on John Hopkins’s totally unprofessional behaviour at Misano. Having had a huge fight with his wife after Saturday qualifying, Hopkins went out clubbing that night, got himself totally wasted and turned up still drunk and hungover for Sunday morning’s warm-up. Despite the team’s assurance that Hopkins had been “disciplined” for the lapse in behaviour, he was allowed to keep his seat in the team. Why? Because his personal sponsor, Monster Energy Drinks, brings sponsorship along with him to the team, and is closely associated in a major sponsorship role with Kawasaki in the USA, their major market.
Now, if Hopkins had been setting the grid on fire and winning races for the team the pragmatic ones amongst us would probably say, “Well, we can forgive him that one because of the all the good he is doing for the team.” But is he? No. Despite constantly out-qualifying his team-mate, he was regularly beaten by Westie and, if he did beat him, it was usually by just one or two placings.
But Hopkins keeps his place in the team for 2009 and Australia’s Anthony West, despite being a loyal and diligent member of the team, gets the shove and is made the scapegoat for their lack of performance. This, if course, is the 2nd of the two major blunders committed by the team in 2008.
2. Firing Anthony West. No surprises here. In this regard it is very interesting to read a most revealing interview with West in today’s edition of superbikeplanet.
I could add that there was one other major blunder.
3. Turning up at the race meetings at all.
Until such time as the race teams manage to convince the management of KHI that they have to spend up big in order to save face in the motorcycle racing community at large, Kawasaki road racing teams are doomed to remain the not-so-special K’s
Postscript. Following on the news that KHI have stripped the PSG-1 company of its “works” team status in the WSBK, comes the announcement that the Paul Bird Motorsport team, a very successful BSB outfit, will be the official Kawasaki team for 2009 with riders Makoto Tamada and Broc Parkes.
This is good news indeed, because, despite the ZX10-R being regarded by all road testers as the closest thing possible to a race bike with lights, it has failed to deliver in the hands of PSG-1. Hopefully things will change in 2009.
