No cut-backs for MXGP teams!
By TMX Archives on 5th Feb 09
WHILE Honda has been making cut-backs right, left and centre in its racing activities this winter, it is full steam ahead with its MXGP programme.
Both the CAS and Martin teams have already received their full factory bikes, and Japanese technicians, who will undoubtedly have a few more goodies in their kit-bags, will join both teams for a week of testing in Italy next week.
While racing in other disciplines has been slashed, Honda, like its fellow manufacturers, are well aware of the necessity to race at the highest level. Japanese riders are simply not fast enough to push the bikes to the limit, and the US technical regulations preclude the prototypes, which have been the forerunner of all successful production runs for the last 30-years!
The test schedule benefits the CAS team, which should now be contesting the big European season-opener at Mantova this weekend.
THE world recession is even affecting German industry, but the premier national MX series the ADAC Masters goes from strength to strength and there is actually an increase in prize money this year. Alone the champion from the eight race series will receive a 10,000 Euro bonus, a 45 per cent increase over 2008.
German teams are also not cutting corners, and the Sturm Kawasaki team has signed 19-year-old American, Johnny Moore, who made a guest appearance for the team during the Supercross season, to contest the entire Youngsters Cup series, which runs concurrently with the Masters.
Jacob Saylor has also signed up for another year, and is expected to improve his outdoor form dramatically after a good winter in the halls and back home on the AMA circuit in recent weeks.
Both Jacob and Robert Sturm plan wild-card appearances alongside Shannon Terreblanche in MX1, but both will also race selected MX3 GPs.
The team is also in negotiation with Jack Brunell to race the Youngsters Cup alongside Moore and Josef Sturm the younger son of the team owner.
Incidentally, Terreblanche, now recovered from serious injury last summer, won the low-key SX in an indoor arena at Zwolle at the weekend.
A further sign of the relative health of the German economy comes with the announcement by Youthstream of yet another new partner, Braun shavers, part of the Gillette group since 1967 and now owned by the multi-national Proctor and Gamble. The new deal is a tribute to Youthstream's successful marketing of the sport on the small screen.
LATEST top rider to join the injured list before the season has even started is Jeremy Van Horebeek. The KTM junior team member has broken his nose while in Spain testing, and will be out of action for the rest of the month.