Honda withdraws from Australian Superbike Championship

January 14, 2009

Honda Australia has followed in the footsteps of its American counterpart and officially withdrawn from direct involvement in its national road racing championship.

The cutback means that Honda, last year's champion in the Superbike class with Glenn Allerton, will no longer fund a Superbike and Supersport offensive in Australia as it pares back its brand-building activities to concentrate on its core business: selling bikes and developing its dealer network.

"We have a long history of supporting racing at the elite level, so making a decision to reduce our involvement was far from easy, said Honda's General Manager, Motorcycles, Tony Hinton. "The key elements of our business are the sales of our motorcycles through servicing our dealer network and providing product at the most competitive price for consumers.

"We will therefore be focusing 100 percent on these areas in the coming months."

Honda previously announced that it would continue to participate in road racing (here), but the unpredictable economic climate eventually proved to be overpowering, forcing Honda to reverse its decision.

Motologic, which ran Honda's factory team in 2008, will continue with the marque in 2009, albeit without major backing from Honda Australia. The Superbike riders will be Allerton and Wayne Maxwell, who are contracted to Motologic, not Honda Australia.

Motologic will not be fielding a Supersport rider in 2009.

"The reduction in involvement from Honda has opened up a lot of opportunities for our new sponsors," said Brad Free, a co-director at Motologic. "Motologic is going along very well at the moment, and the retail side is really flying. Having the race team run off the back off that is an added bonus."

Allerton and Maxwell will begin their 2009 campaigns with a two-day test session at Winton (Vic) next week. The opening round of the Australian Superbike Championship will be held at Phillip Island (Vic) from February 27 until March 1.

For more information on the 2009 ASC, click here.

Motologic specialises in racebike preparation and custom modifications to streetbikes. It's already prepared four Supersport and two 1000cc Superstock bikes for the 2009 season, as well as machines for Allerton and Maxwell.

For more information on Motologic, click here.

Pic: Allerton