Next year’s AMA Superbike championship may be a shadow of its former self. Sure, there will be some good riders, but not many of them.
Kawasaki will be a one rider team. Yamaha will be a one rider team. Factory Ducati will be a zero rider team (although Steve Rapp may get a one or two year old bike to cruise around on). Harley-Davidson is gone (and almost forgotten).
Why is this happening? Why did Yamaha leave WSB? Why has Kawasaki taken eight years to build a new 750 (and doesn’t look like it ever will)? No one cares any more. The four-stroke MotoGP championship is all the rage — even Kawasaki will join that party in 2003. Looks like local race series need a new format to keep the factories interested. For now, traditional “superbike” racing is headed downhill.
