Kawasaki cancels American 600cc Superbike class race

Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. has gotten out of the factory racing business by abandoning the American Superbike class in favor of the AMA SportBike 600cc class, with Roger Hayden and one other rider to campaign the all-new 2009 ZX-6R on a team run out of Attack Racing.

"We will not be racing Superbikes," said Bruce Stjernstrom, Kawasaki's Director of Marketing, in a phone conversation from Kawasaki's headquarters in Irvine, California. The team, which is to be called Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki, will be "a combined effort, but we're taking our resources and their resources and making one team to compete in the AMA series."

The decision wasn't related to costs, Stjernstrom said, "it was just more of a directional thing that we wanted to be in what we thought was the direction that they were going in and the premiere class, and that's what we decided."

Attack Kawasaki has won the past two Daytona 200s, in 2007 with Steve Rapp and in 2008 with Chaz Davies, but only after Erion Honda's Josh Hayes was disqualified for having an illegal crankshaft. Rapp finished third in the 2008 Formula Xtreme championship, with Davies tied for fifth. Davies finished sixth in the Supersport championship.