Byrne laments Brands WSBK miss.

Tragic, what else can you say. Thats why we dont have any riders competing for world championships. Cant believe it.

Don't know about tragic, more like stupidity on the part of the BSB organisers.
A big part of the reason that BSB has been so successful over recent years was that, unlike AMA, the rules were exactly the same as WSB.
For reasons totally beyond comprehension, the BSB powers-that-be decided to go their own way, which together with the lack of TV coverage, has led to the demise of the series this year.
It can only get worse unless we get someone with some common sense and nounce picking up the BSB reigns.

Yeah Toon. And next year without Airwaves & HM PLant? Yawn City.

BSB announced about a week ago that it switches back to WSB rules next year. AMA has also announced that it will be running WSB rules in 2009. you should get more wild cards next year although there might not be any grid slots for wild cards if all 32 spaces are taken. Confirmed additional entries in 2009 include Boulder Ducati (USA)and BMW - both two man teams. Aprilia is also likely for 2009 + GSE Ducati now that Airwaves are launching a marketing push in Europe. HM Plant Honda also rumoured to be joining WSB, but I think that is unlikely now that they have got WSB in BSB for 2009.

Last sentence I meant ...now that they have got WSB rules in BSB for 2009 i.e. Honda and GSE threatening to pull out probably caused the sudden mid-season announcement from BSB bosses.

The rule change for AMA won't have an effect on wildcards for the top teams because of the spec Pirelli. The top AMA teams use Dunlops and sped massive amounts of time testing with them. No way would Yosh Suzuki, US Honda, Yamaha USA, and Kwak slap Pirellis on their factory bikes and let their riders loose. But the privateers would be more than happy to do it.

The HM Plant rumor may have some legs. There is no "official" HRC entrant in WSBK. Ten Kate helps develop the bikes and get some support but they are not HRC. Being that the only HRC superbikes outside of Japan are the HM Plant bikes, maybe they are going to be the official factory team in WSBK.

Will be good seeing hm plant and airwaves in wsb, airwaves have the class riders to go get the british interest up in wsb and hm plant have cal crutchlow who i think will be amazing. Cant see them taking haslam though.

i thought HRC scaled down their bsb eforts this year, with bsb going pirelli and them taking kiyonari out. i think its run out of the workshop in louth this year,plus you dont see japanese technicians in their pit anymore

Its a real shame Shakey's not going to be racing at Brands or Donington.Saying that,its looking very likely that he will be in WSBK next year anyway.The other obvious losers will be the fans.I am going to Donington and would have loved to see him race there.I reckon he would have gone really well .

Why not give Shane the third Ducati that was ridden at the last wsb round. It would be a chance to see how Shane would get on with Troy's bike next year.

I don't see why Shane couldn't ride the third Duke at Brands and Donnington, however if they offered, I'm sure misery-guts Wright would have some excuse as to why Shakey couldn't ride it i.e. we don't want him getting injured and risking his BSB title chances. Personally, if Shakey gets a sniff of a ride with Xerox next year I think he should go for it and let GSE do whatever they're gonna do. He won't exactly be needing any adjustment time to ride the Ducati. Should be fast from the word go. Only problem is if he wasn't competitive with Xerox and got dropped in 2010, where does he go then, whereas GSE would probably tolerate a slightly lower level of success in their return year to WSBK...

shakey didnt want to show how crap he is and how the wsbk boys would have eaten him alive unlike the nursery school he races against every other sunday!!!!

Oh look... the attention seekers are back !!! Oh good.

Quote:

shakey didnt want to show how crap he is and how the wsbk boys would have eaten him alive unlike the nursery school he races against every other sunday!!!!
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Posted by yamaha r1 - Unregistered (57 minutes ago)

Yeah,he was REALLY crap when he raced against them at Brands IN 2003 wasn't he ? and Sykes and Crutchlow,nursery school racers ?.Errr... I don't think so !.

It's nothing to do with Byrne not wanting to race. Why would he think he's crap when the last WSBK outing he had he stuffed the whole field twice in one afternoon ? He's on equivalent machinery again this year so he would have had every chance to do it again. It's all down to Colin 'boo-hoo' Wright who can't stand the thought of losing or not winning everything he enters, which is so pathetic its unreal. I don't know how much better an opportunity to shine on the world stage there could be than Shakey at Brands / Donnington on a factory spec 1200 Ducati. How much more competitive than that does Wright want it ? Best rider, with pedigree in WSBK, best bike, favourite circuit. What a clown...

Yamaha r1

Have you just started watching WSBK this year? but Shakey can hold his own on the world stage. Clearly you didn't see the convincing double he pulled in 2003. And if you did you are just being a Shakey hater. Yeah, Colin, Bayliss, and Haga were gone but he still beat the factory Ducatis and the rest of the field. He even crossed the line with proper stand-up wheelies that would make John Hopkins envious!

Raw Dawg, don't waste your time on fools like R1. Him and a few others are just attention seeking wind up merchants. Anyone who follows Superbikes knows that Byrne has achieved wins at WSBK level and is capable of giving them a run for their money no problem. We've been all through the whys and wherefores of 2003 and those of us who want to have a sensible debate on here know that Byrne is world class. If he needed to up his game at WSBK level I'm sure he'd have the tools to do the job. Hopefully in 2009 we'll get to see for definite.

I see that HASLAM, CRUTCHLOW & ELLISON will be riding at Donington. I hope that a camera is focussed on Wright & Shakey during the racing, it might be more entertaining than the racing. Tragic,like a comic opera.