Kawasaki officially withdraws from MotoGP

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2009-01-09 Kawasaki officially withdraws from MotoGP
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Green kawasaki machines are officially out of MotoGP championship

After weeks of speculation, Kawasaki today officially announced it's withdraw from MotoGP championship. This leaves MotoGP grid with just 17 riders for the 2009. season, with rumored efforts of the Jorge Martinez Aspar to continue Kawasaki MotoGP involvement in semi-factory effort. This again puts in doubt rides of Marco Melandri and John Hopkins, as Aspar insists on Spanish riders if he is going to found team like this. Another issue would be regarding realistic prospects of such a team to fight for some serious results - if it was not the case with factory efforts, how we can expect it from non-factory team? Some questions are now answered, some will be answered probably soon, but in any case MotoGP seems to be in one of it's largest crises so far.

Kawasaki press release:
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has decided to suspend its factory MotoGP racing activities from 2009 season.

Amid quickly changing business environment, Kawasaki has been promptly taking countermeasures to cope with the situation. As the world economy is not likely to recover in a short period due to the major impact of the financial crisis, Kawasaki decided to suspend its MotoGP racing activities from 2009 season onward and reallocate management resources more efficiently.

Kawasaki will continue racing activities using mass-produced motorcycles as well as supporting general race-oriented customers.

Kawasaki would like to thank all the fans and all those who have forwarded us great help.

Mr.Yoshio Kawamura, the Managing Director of Kawasaki Motors Racing B.V. deeply appreciates the contribution and the dedication brought by staff members of the MotoGP team.

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