Well part of the issue I think is that Team Hammer already had multiple bikes in each class. In 2019 they had 1 SBK on grid, 2 600 SSP, at COTA a saw a couple of red plated stock 1000's under their tent in team colors and however many twins they ran out of their program. Maybe they add 1 more SBK so both Jake and Toni have a ride, maybe they don't. Its fortunate for Gerloff that he found a ride in WSBK for 2020, because if he hadn't that would have made him, Herrin and Gagne left playing musical chairs for 1 available top tier seat.
I believe Toni has one more year left on his Suzuki contact so I imagine Suzuki is fronting the cost to have Team Hammer build another SBK (unless Suzuki owns the Yosh bikes and just changes the liveries on them to Hammer).
I’ve been curious about who owns the bikes for factory teams as well...I assumed either the team buys the bike at a discount or the factory supplies the bike and the team build it to their spec. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hey John, it's not my to sit back, watch this thread, and just laugh your ass off at all the speculation. Not nice.
Anyone know if they larger ship with M4 is stil there or are they riding “yosh” built bikes will they run yosh pipes?
JU has had a relationship with Suzuki for as long as Yosh has. Maybe even longer. Nothing chickenshit there. As for the team knowing are we talking about the team members or Don Sakakura finding out from a press release? There are a lot of different levels at Yosh, it's a hell of a lot more than just one race team.
I am wondering if the equipment Yoshimura was using will end up at M4? I would not be surprised if it went back to Japan. Perhaps JU could shed some light on this.
I would say based on the evidence of the past year - JU is done lining us all out on how ignorant we all really are about these topics. I gotta figure saying “ I’ll see you on the AMA SB grid next year and you can show me how it’s done” gets old. EDIT - Go Team Hammer!
As much as it sucks, I think MA is doing the best that they can. All of the classes were a lot of fun to watch, including the twins class. I think this is a great opportunity to let the little guys line up and help develop the series for the future. It could be the foot in the door to bigger opportunities if/when the factories come back. At least we have something to watch and bitch about.
M4 could use those works bikes up until they ran out of those works spares....not stuff you can easily or inexpensively get here, and apparently not stuff that will continue to be produced.
I voice my opinion a couple times a year in here. Not a couple times an hour like most. I’m indirectly intimately involved with the MA series and, as you’ve seen, I’ll defend it the only way I know how and I’ll continue to defend it. There’s absolutely no cause, none, for any of the negative bullshit being spewed in here about MA. Especially from people falsely claiming to know information that is simply not true. If you are going to let these people run their mouths with bullshit, at least let me defend the solid investment being made from legitimate and passionate investors in the series. I would like to think that you would have less of a problem with someone defending road racing in America than you would with someone spreading negative and unsubstantiated bullshit rumors about road racing in America. Maybe I’m wrong? The real important issue in this scenario is why the fuck would ANYONE on this board, a road racing board, WANT to spew negative, unsubstantiated bullshit about road racing? it’s Beyond mind boggling. I have no idea where these underlines are coming from.
Nobody mentioned Team Hammer had better results than Yosh did this season. Now can we move on to who's riding what on that team in 2020?
It will be interesting to see. It was obvious that Jake's SBK was a noticeable step down from the level of trickery that were on Toni and Josh's bikes. So it will be interesting to see if the 2020 bikes are Yosh's in M4 clothing or will they be running a spec of bike similar to what Jake has been using to date. One thing for sure that was noticeable was that Jake didn't get access to those work's swingarms, looked like he was just running maybe a modified OEM swinger.
After seeing Bobby Fong riding the piss out of that 1000SSTK Kawi a few years back when the classes were combined, I sure hope to see him on a superbike in 2020.
The only constant is change man. Team Hammer is 100% capable of running a competitive superbike program with factory support. Suzuki is still in the game with factory support, that's what matters. Until bike sales improve budgets need to be managed closely.
Would be cool for sure, but if indeed Toni still has 1 more year contracted through Suzuki I'm assuming that would mean that Jake would have to give up his seat (again, assuming Jake is the other M4 superbike rider) for Fong to be able to step up to the SBK class next year.
Team Hammer runs an amazing program, safe bet they will bring the results. When you can get the same job done and spend less that is just smart business. In this case they consolidated their support into one team that has proven they can win. I for one an thankful Suzuki is continuing their factory support for MotoAmerica.