The last time we heard from Alstare Suzuki team owner Francis Batta regarding his 2012 plans was just last month when he was confirmed that he would be staying in World Superbikes with Suzuki and was even looking into expanding his team and also run a bike in World Supersport if he could find sponsors and funding, instead the Belgium manager in a long interview with Cycle News has confirmed that he has thrown in the towel and is withdrawing from the 2012 Superbike championship.
Batta is reporting that Suzuki has pulled out its factory involvement (which now explains why Paul Denning’s Crescent Suzuki has turned to Yoshimura and that Suzuki will almost certainly no longer be in MotoGP) and he true to his word will not continue any racing efforts without them, despite having had offers to run Kawasaki’s and Yamaha’s but turned them down as a sign of respect because of his long standing relationship with the Hamamatsu manufacturer, but he did admit that he was interested in MV Agusta, but the Italian manufacturer didn’t return his calls.
It is very sad to see that such an important team as Alstare Suzuki who has brought so much to World Supersports and World Superbikes in the last fifteen years end this way.
We expect an official statement from Batta in the next few hours.