After the debacle of a round at Monza, the Effenbert-Liberty Racing Team had some choice words regarding how the World Superbike Championship was being handled last weekend. Surely having something to do with the fact that Effenbert racer Sylvain Guintoli qualified on the pole position, the Czech squad had to watch as the French rider’s bike died on the sighting lap for Race 2. Gaining momentum from its win at Assen, the guys at Effenbert-Liberty Racing were surely frustrated by the events in Italy, though things have seemingly escalated from there.
First stating that the team would only minimally participate at the Donington Park round, i.e. not bring a full hospitality service, and would reconsider its involvement in the rest of the WSBK season, the words from the Ducati squad have cooled to some degree, but continue to be rather ominous. With Infront Sports & Media, the rights holder to World Superbike, publicly saying it has deferred the matter to its legal council, Liberty Racing released another statement, noticeably absent of its title sponsor’s name, that confirmed its previous statements about Donington Park.
While everything is being read between the lines, the consensus of rumors in the WSBK media is that Effenbert has dropped its support of the Liberty Racing team, which would surely mean the withdrawal of the four-rider team from World Superbike. While Liberty’s fourth rider, Brett McCormick, has already been sidelined with a broken neck this season, the absence of the team’s other three riders would surely leave a gap in the ranks of WSBK.
Effenbert Liberty Racing Statement May 6th, 2012:
“The clear impression is that the WSBK has endured one of its worst days, disrespect for the public, for those who, like Team Effenbert, invests and for sports in general. It is unacceptable that the fundamental decisions of the day are been taken with such a superficiality not even worthy of a single brand championship of scooters. At the end it is clear that the WSBK is in the hands of a little number of team and riders. Other categories, also titled, would never ran into such a farce, a fact proven by the competitions of the other classes without major incident and without complaint.Considering all this situations, the team Effenbert Liberty’s management will reflect about its racing future.”
Effenbert Liberty Racing Statement May 8th, 2012:
“The Liberty Racing Team would like to communicate that its own riders Sylvain Guintoli, Jakub Smrž and Maxime Berger supported by their technical staff, will take part in the Europe GP, 5th round of the Superbike World Championship, that will be held at Donington Park this weekend.”
Source: Liberty Racing; Photo: WSBK
Comments