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Written by:
Dennis Noyes
01/04/2009 - 02:24 PM
Borrego Springs, CA
Marco Melandri (Photo: Kawasaki Racing) ยป More Photos
In a desperate, last-minute attempt to keep the MotoGP grid size at 19 riders, Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta is reportedly offering to subsidize a sort of 'bailout' of Kawasaki by contributing through a Spanish team to the costs of leasing, maintaining, and running the Kawasaki factory team. Jorge Martinez (“Aspar”), the former 80cc and 125cc World Champion who runs Aprilia teams in both 125 and 250, would take over the organization of the Kawasaki effort.
Martinez has acknowledged that he was contacted by Ezpeleta and that he is studying the possibility. His first reaction was that it would be difficult to find additional sponsorship for a team featuring an Italian (Marco Melandri) and an American (John Hopkins). An earlier attempt to obtain, again with Dorna's encouragement, a third Kawasaki to be run by the Aspar structure
Kawasaki rejected all three Spaniards and Aspar rejected Nakano, saying, “I respect Nakano as a top rider but I cannot attract Spanish sponsorship for a Japanese rider.”
Now, in a strange twist, the fate of Kawasaki’s racing investment (they say they have already spent six million dollars on their 2009 machines) seems to rest in the hands of the team they (Kawasaki) rejected.
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