i was at morganton n.c. for the third round of the gncc's and noticed the team green truck was missing. yokley was on a black (i think) roll ,honda. what has happen to the factory support ? william yokely has won the first two races, and now kawi pulls the rug out from under him . anyone know why ? could it be part of the merger cut backs ? i think it sucks...

 

I haven't even heard this yet until now.

I didn't look for Kawasaki to offer any support this year with Cannondale coming in supporting riders with machines that are actually built.

Kawasaki has gotten praise for supporting a team while at the same time getting criticism for not building what they were racing. I couldn't agree more with the second.

Kawasaki should have dropped out if they had no intentions on building a sport quad. The Prairie650 just isn't enough.

I figured they wouldn't even had fielded a team this year at all, but it is mighty strange for them to be dumping everyone after only two races. The "alliance" between Kawasaki and Suzuki could have played a part since Suzuki has plans to field a team with the new LT400Z. Maybe we just don't know enough of the real scoop yet to know exactly what's going on.

I would love to know as well what is truly going on here. I think a couple of you guys are buddies with Mike Penland. What's the scoop???

 

Hey, maybe after 3-4 years of racing high performance/sport quads without building them, they decided to do the opposite and build them! LOL! Not likely![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] I did see an article some where that mentioned Yokely on a White Kawasakiless Roll design quad. I also saw that Penland and Landon were on Kawasaki's though. Maybe they just pulled the plug on the KXF 250 racer? It is pretty stupid to run ads braging about a how they learn from team green racing and put it into the quads they build and then never even offer the damn thing. I am losing all my faith in Kawasaki[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img]

 

If they would have withdrawn would GNCC not have pulled down their contigency program: Here is the one listed on the site
AA
1st $1000
2nd $750
3rd $500
4th $400
5th $350
6th $300
7th $250
8th $200
9th $150
10th $100
200 A/250 A/Open A/4st A/Vet A/Sr A
1st $350
2nd $200
3rd $150
4th $100
5th $75
200 B/250 B/Open B/4st B/Vet B/Sr B/Super Sr
1st $150
2nd $100
3rd $75
4th $50
5th $25
125/200 C, 250C & Open
Mini Jr./Mini (12-13)/Mini (14-15)/Women

1st $75
2nd $50
3rd $25

I'm "cornfused" here maybe he did not race due to it being a SETRA event who knows. He won the first two so let's hope Kawi did not pull the plug.

 

That's for bikes... No manufacturer contengencies are offered for quads.

 

That sucks that Kawasaki left Yokley hanging out to dry, if that is in fact what happened. Two wins in the first two races... what was Kawasaki thinking?!?!?

 

If you go to the "race news" link on the GNCC site, there are a few comments made by a couple racers including Yokely, but nothing is said about Team Green or anything about what Yokely was riding except that it was a Roll quad.

Maybe it was a one time thing.

Has anyone learned anything yet??

Oh well. If there is no KXF250 at the next round, I guess that will be our answer.

 

I talked with Reed Nordine, my former boss at Kawasaki, on Monday because I had heard that William had gotten fired for running a Honda engine at the first 2 GNCC races and, if so, I wanted to hire him for my team. This was not true. They had just quit running the 2-stroke Kawasaki because of the critcism they were getting for running a non-production machine. William is still a contract rider with Kawasaki but he is listed as a "test rider" until he can get on a production machine. Whether this means he will be riding a green Roll machine with a Suzuki/ Kawasaki 400 engine or a running a production 400 Kawasaki/Suzuki. They did ask me what we were building our Suzuki to and I told him Mike Benson would be running a big bore stroker 492 or 507, whichever worked better. The good news is, it is proposed that Kawasaki has a bigger team next year possibly a 4-stroke stock rider or pro production rider but this has not been confirmed, it is only my opinion. The pro production class will be the premier class soon and it's great for our sport and for the manufacturers to have this class to keep everyone equal and competitive. We have tried to run a 400EX in the pro class with Chad Duvall this year but the best we can expect is 5th or 6th place unless one of the top 5 riders drops out. So as of Thursday, we are putting Chad Duvall in the pro production class where his machine belongs and he will be able to ride competitively without over-riding the capabilities of a stock chassis trying to keep up with the $25,000 machines.

 

Excellent info Mickey...

I agree that the Pro Production class is the best thing to happen for a while. I really believe this will help take things to the next level which is currently being held back by the "outlaw" machines.

Those machines were required back when there were no new sport/race quads being made, but the face of the industry is changing quickly and the GNCC is taking steps in the right direction. Good luck in the Pro Production class...

 

Mickey,

Graet news to hier.
Glad to see you back, hope things are slowing some for you.

I also think the pro-production class is what the sport has needed, but without production quads it would have been difficult.

492 or 502 ???, I see you have been busy[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Well see you at Loretta Lynns!