Following on from my story yesterday that Suzuki are planning on building a new assembly plant, comes news that 2nd quarter sales of Harley Davidsons have risen by 7.5% in the USA. Given that the USA took a big hit in the GFC and that Harley had reported huge sales slumps in recent reporting this is very good news. In fact, this was the first positive sales figure for Harley since the last quarter of 2006. In other markets they didn’t do quite so well, recording a 2nd quarter growth of 5.6% but it’s still encouraging.
However, all is not sweetness and light as my report yesterday on GP teams and their spending indicates. I’m grateful to one of my regular contributors who pointed me to this article in the influential Autosport journal this morning.
“By Michele Lostia and Pablo Elizalde
Honda racing boss Shuhei Nakamoto says it is unlikely the works team will have three riders next year, suggesting Andrea Dovizioso and even Marco Simoncelli will lose their official support.
Honda decided to run a third works bike this year, after Casey Stoner joined Dani Pedrosa and Dovizioso in the team.
Simoncelli currently races for the satellite Gresini squad, but he uses the same bike as the works riders.
Nakamoto says Honda’s budget will be reduced from next year and, as things stand now, he believes only Stoner and Pedrosa will remain on board in 2012.
“These are hard times, the economic crisis is far from over,” Nakamoto was quoted as saying by Motosprint magazine.
“On top of that, Japan has some big problems due to the disasters that happened last spring. All our industrial sector has had to slow down production by 30 per cent, and Honda is not immune from that. So we had to cut costs too.
“If I was forced to make an announcement today with regards to our 2012 riders, I could only talk about the works team because Stoner and Pedrosa are the only ones with a contract for next season. So I would have to say goodbye to both Simoncelli and Dovizioso.
“I’ve asked both to wait and be patient: we are trying to solve the situation, which is fundamentally tied to a matter of money. The budget will be cut, but I don’t yet know by how much. By mid-August everything should be clearer.”
Motosprint reports that it is likely there will be just four 1,000cc Hondas in 2012: two for the works team, and two for the satellite riders.
Currently the Japanese manufacturer fields six bikes”
This fits in with the “Simo to Ducati – Dovi to Gresini” scenario I reported yesterday.
Incidentally, on the subject of Rossi staying at Ducati next year, the issue is moot, really, because, if he WERE to leave, where would he go? Not Yamaha, not Honda, not Suzuki….
Oh, and thanks to Pete for also pointing out that my report still had Livio Suppo at Ducati. Of course, he’s now at Honda. I should have said that Simo has been talking to Ducati team manager, Vittoriano Gureschi.
Finally, another Shadowfax? I had an email on this site from a gentleman who claims to own another Kent Miklenda creation. He’s going to send me some pictures that show the bike’s detail, but, on the basis of the photos I’ve seen it looks as if the industrious Kent supplied some very nice fibreglass work to another Kawasaki back then. This figures as he did lots of glass work, not just the race bike. I can’t wait to see the bigger pictures. If it does prove to be another Miklenda creation then we’ll have to get the two bikes together for a photo shoot once mine is completed.