No Ducati either...

http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=35200

Guess that puts end to the notion that BSB is blissfully factory-
unreliant...

 

Nice comment from somebody on the Perf Bikes forum.

"because the firm couldn't find a team that would be strong enough to
win races in BSB, they have called it a day."

Translated = " We've really fucked up first of all by arse raping Colin
Wright for too long meaning he was an easy target for Yamaha, then we
tried to arse rape the NW200 team by putting ridiculous conditions in
place which meant their title sponsor and rider has also gone to Yamaha.
This means we are all out of options because we've managed to piss the
two people off that can and have delivered us championships in 2008 (BSB
& Superstock) so we're gonna sit by and watch both of our 2008 titles go
to Japan in 2009"

There may well be some reaction in there from Colin Wright to being
pushed about by the rule changes against Ducatis.

NW200 team were run out of John Hackett who has been tuning Ducatis for
years and years. It's hard to see what they'll do and most likely just
give the series a miss for a year. It's been like musical chairs over
here. Suzuki have switched allegiance from Crescent to Relentless
despite Tom Sykes putting on a good show. But then the token Japanese
really didn't do very well at all. GSE have gone to Yamaha and have two
Australians riding. We've got Guintoli and DaCosta as the other token
foreigners. And Walker, Rutter and Rob McElnea as the old man's team.

There's a full grid, some good racers and some hot machinery. So it's
not all bad. But this is going to be an odd year as so many have moved
to WSB/WSS and some riders who looked like they were moving to BSB
eventually found rides in WSB/WSS. The big question here as well as
elsewhere is how quickly the new R1 can be competitive. And the new
Suzuki.

Camier, Ellison, Richards, Guintoli must all feel this is their year and
the championship is within reach.

As for your dig.
- HM Plant Honda might as well be a factory team.
- Relentless Suzuki have support from Suzuki Japan in return for
Watanabe. But support from Japan to the UK team has never amounted to
much.
- I'd expect a fairly free flow of info between GSE Yamaha and Yamaha
Italia
After that, it's the usual private teams building bikes from whatever
they can buy in and afford.

 

<boggle>

McElnea's dusting off his leathers?

 

Heh. I doubt if he'd fit in them any more. Being a little more burly
than he used to be.

 

GSE are selling all their Ducati kit.
- 4 bikes
- 40 wheels
- £150K of spares
- £150K worth of Magneti Marelli electronics

£300k the lot. But then you probably need to arrange a supply of '09
Ducati engines. And they're probably not eligible for ASB.

So have you got 3 friends who want to form a track day team? Only £75K
each...