Team Classic Suzuki is known for making some impressive vintage-inspired machines, but today’s example might be the pinnacle of their prowess.
With racing basically non-existent during the early days of COVID, the team found itself with an abundance of time on their hands…and idle hands are the Devil’s workshop.
So, taking an ex-Alstare Racing WorldSBK-spec Suzuki GSX-R1000 from the garage, Team Classic Suzuki created this very attractive (and potent) Katana.
Ending a 14 year relationship, the 2013 World Superbike Championship season sees Team Alstare under the flag of a new manufacturer, as the Belgian squad closes its story with Suzuki Racing, and begin a new one with Ducati Corse. An adjustment for many in the paddock, the name Alstare has always been synonymous with Suzuki, though the team’s absence this last season was a noticeable one, as Team Alstare has always been one of the top crews in WSBK.
In that regard, it seems fitting then that Alstare should find a partnership with another great name in World Superbike racing, and so while the name Team Ducati Alstare sounds a bit strange to the ear, it makes sense in the head. Bidding goodbye to Suzuki, and hello to Ducati, Team Alstare has put together two videos, which have more than a touch of bittersweet to them. Clearly, this is a wound that will still require some time to heal.
After going it essentially alone for the 2011 World Superbike Championship, the Alstare Suzuki team is weighing its options for 2012, as actual factory support from Suzuki for the “factory Suzuki” squad is again seeming unlikely. Releasing a “read between the lines” press release this week, Alstare has publicly put Suzuki Japan on notice over the fact that the Japanese manufacturer is expected not be developing the Suzuki GSX-R1000 further for WSBK, and will not fund Alstare’s own R&D efforts to remain competitive in the premier production-class.
As such, Alstare has been linked to other manufacturers, both in World Superbike and World Supersport, as the team is known to be one of the better run and organized squads in the WSBK paddock. Plagued with essentially running last year’s machinery with updates developed in-house, Alstare has made a lot of progress with the hand they’ve been dealt, though to run at the top of the pack would require more assistance from Suzuki.
With the Japanese company still reeling from the worldwide recession, support from Suzuki seems unlikely, though Alstare says the company is expected to make its official announcement by the Magny-Cours round this weekend. Read the full text of Team Alstare’s press release after the jump.
Multiple teams have placed bids to become the 2012 factory Kawasaki racing team in World Superbike, including current factory team Paul Bird Motorsports. The five other teams include satellite Team Pedericini, the current Alstare Suzuki squad (who are less than thrilled with Suzuki’s lack of support), and the Supersonic Ducati team completing the current WSBK teams vying for factory backing. Also interested are British Superbike team MSS Colchester and factory World Supersport’s Motocard.com team.
For PBM, the process of retaining factory support is more difficult after team trucks and personnel were detained with drugs and weaponry when returning to Britian after the Assen round. Though the team said afterwards, “The team are confident that no team member has any connection whatsoever with the items discovered. No one has been detained after the time of the search and all team members are able to undertake their normal duties,” such an event certainly raised eyebrows, and likely soured with an embarrassed Kawasaki.
Our World Superbike silly season round-up from three weeks ago is now 3 for 3, as Alstare Suzuki has announced the signing of Michel Fabrizio to its “factory” team, replacing the departed Leon Haslam. The announcement is a homecoming for Fabrizio, who raced for Alstare’s European Superstock team back in 2003, but the Italian rider has a ton of work ahead of him as Suzuki’s support for the WSBK team is still highly questionable. Fabrizio got his first taste of the Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 World Superbike while testing at Magny-Cours last week, his first time back on an inline-four, after riding an v-twin all these years.
After yesterday’s announcement that rider Leon Haslam would be released from his contract at Alstare Suzuki because of a lack of factory support, the Alstare Suzuki team announced today that it would be fielding only one rider in World Superbike next year. Alstare will continue to work with Suzuki, but it’s unclear exactly how much support the Japanese factory will be giving the team.
With Haslam’s departure, it can be deduced that Suzuki’s involvement won’t be on par with the rest of the factory teams, but remains none-the-less. Although no rider has been named for the 2011 WSBK season, Alstare says we can expect an announcement in that regard during World Superbike’s last stop at Magny-Cours this weekend.
Alstare Suzuki announced this morning that Leon Haslam has been let out of his contract with the “factory” Suzuki World Superbike team. Although only halfway through a two-year contract, Haslam is said to have a clause in his contract that guarantees him factory support within the team. With Suzuki’s involvement being brought into question for next season, Alstare team principal Francis Batta has had no choice but to release Haslam from team obligations after Magny-Cours. Although no announcement has come forth, Haslam is widely believed to be taking Ruben Xaus’s seat at BMW for the 2011 season.
UPDATE 3: Michel Fabrizio has signed-on with Alstare Suzuki team for 2011.
UPDATE 2: Leon Haslam has signed with the BMW Factory Squad.
UPDATE: It’s being reported that Noriyuki Haga has agreed to ride with the DFX team on a factory Aprilia RSV4, with an announcement delayed out of deference to Biaggi’s impending WSBK crowning.
While the MotoGP silly season is just starting to wind down, the World Superbike shuffling of riders is apparently just getting underway. So far this silly season we’ve seen , confirming that he’d be with Ten Kate Honda next season, despite being only two years into a three year contract, which was a strange announcement at the very least.
After Ducati’s little spat with Infront Motor Sports last month, the Xerox Ducati Team will be no more in 2011, leaving factory riders Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki S.O.L. when it comes to gainful employment, which is where our fist batch of silly season rumors starts us. If Moto.it‘s Carlo Baldi is to be believed (he is the listed press officer for Althea Ducati after all), Haga will find himself on a satellite Aprilia ride, while Michel Fabrizio will go to Alstare Suzuki. If you’re a die-hard WSBK fan you may realize that means that current Alstare Suzuki star Leon Haslam must be finding work elsewhere, with Baldi putting the British rider in the factory BMW squad. Still with us?
Aprilia is either confident or cocky, because according to MCN, the Italian manufacturer’s racing department has halted development on the 2010 World Superbike spec RSV4 Factory race bike. Comfortable with Max Biaggi’s 58 point lead over Leon Haslam and his Alstare Suzuki, Aprilia wants Biaggi to focus on racing with his current setup, rather than risk having a prototype part breaking, and costing the team and Biaggi the World Superbike Championship.
Trailing in the World Superbike Championship standings by 37 points, Leon Haslam has called on Suzuki Japan to lend him more support if they want to contend with Max Biaggi and Aprilia for the WSBK title. Losing the World Superbike lead at Miller Motorsports Park, Haslam and Suzuki have found the Aprilia of Biaggi slowly out-classing them at races.
Orginially favorited to win WSBK this year, Haslam says that unless Suzuki allocates more resources to his racing effort, the Japanese manufacturer will miss a golden opportunity to win a World Championship title, which is code for “Hey Suzuki, satellite bikes are beating your factory MotoGP team”.
World Superbike headed to Valencia, Spain this weekend for the third round of the WSBK season. With a strong Superpole by Cal Crutchlow, all eyes were on the Sterilgarda Yamaha to see if a surprise victory would occur. With the Championship heating up as riders are vetted into place, Valenica would prove to be a battlefield this weekend with more than one rider firing a warning shot across the proverbial bows of their competitors, signaling their intention to compete.