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9/7/2017
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Edited Date/Time
5/25/2021 8:33am
Between 82 and 96 Honda utterly dominated winning 13 of 15 SX titles but they were never very loyal to the Red Riders who won the titles. There are lots of stories of Honda telling riders they could be replaced because it was all about the bikes. While I don't think Kawasaki has the dominant bike because those probably reside in Austria they seem to have learned when to cut bait with riders. Does Kawasaki letting Eli go seem familiar to any fans of Honda from back in the day?
With Honda letting great riders walk they never got stuck paying for past performance. I'm not a huge Tomac fan but he has been a gnarly bad mofo with 4 big bike championships and 37 Supercross wins. With his past success being acknowledged his best days are solidly behind him and you would have to be delusional to think that he has 4 more championships in him and 37 more SX wins.
It would make sense and lend credence to the rumor that Kawasaki didn't offer him a contract. In other sports it is done all the time that veteran players are cut or traded when their contract doesn't match their performance so why not in moto? He may even still have another championship or 2 in him and 5 or 6 SX race wins but would you pay a guy like that as a top number one guy or would you continue to move towards youth?
With Honda letting great riders walk they never got stuck paying for past performance. I'm not a huge Tomac fan but he has been a gnarly bad mofo with 4 big bike championships and 37 Supercross wins. With his past success being acknowledged his best days are solidly behind him and you would have to be delusional to think that he has 4 more championships in him and 37 more SX wins.
It would make sense and lend credence to the rumor that Kawasaki didn't offer him a contract. In other sports it is done all the time that veteran players are cut or traded when their contract doesn't match their performance so why not in moto? He may even still have another championship or 2 in him and 5 or 6 SX race wins but would you pay a guy like that as a top number one guy or would you continue to move towards youth?
The whole post was about how the manufacturers treat their riders.
I ride Blu Cru so I'm not a Yamaha hater by any means but why would he leave Kawasaki to ride the "Blue Pig?" Does Eli really want to leave his home in Colorado to train and live in North Florida? Doesn't make sense.
It's possible he left on his own but I did hear the didn't extend a contract.
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He'll go to California/Florida when needed, just like JMart.
Eli won’t be going to train anywhere near Florida.
They are both similar in the sense that they are both Japanese owned companies which sometimes do things that seem detached from the prospective markets of said companies.
Am I asking: Are Kawasaki's red? No
Am I asking: Did Kawasaki win 13 of 15 championships? No
Am I asking: Is Kawasaki better than KTM? No
Am I asking: Is Kawasaki going to send its entire team to the MXdN? No
Am I asking: Does Kawasaki seem to be taking a hard line with their Champions? Ding ding ding winner!!!!!
Maybe that's the question I was asking. I thought I stated it plainly.
From memory it seems the riders leave.
Bet its a good guess that culture hasn't changed much and for every Elito post we read here, there was probably an email from Japan that read "what is the condition of rider Eli Tomac"
*****When I say underperformed I know the pitchforks will come out but I'm talking underperformed compared to the guy that could put 20 seconds on anyone in the world on any given day.*****
Pit Row
He hasn’t been even close to the same guy for the past year, so when his contract came up for renewal, I doubt he was offered the same money Kaw offered the last time around. You can’t blame them.
Eli figures he has a year or two left to line his pocketbook before he rides off into the sunset, so you can’t blame him, either.
Yamaha hasn’t won an AMA 450 championship in well over a decade, and hasn’t won even a single race yet this year. Perhaps they recognize the success that Eli and Kawasaki have had, and signed him not only for his racing abilities, but for his bike development skills. Star certainly has a talented 250 lineup, so maybe they want to be sure the motorcycle is dialed in as perfectly as possible before throwing any of these young, talented 250 guys to the wolves in the 450 class. They couldn’t have signed a better rider to help them accomplish this goal.
Besides, Yamaha already has a history of signing past Kawasaki champions to lucrative endorsement deals once they are retired, so there’s that.
As for comparing this to the RC/Honda situation, it isn’t even in the same ballpark. RC was still at the height of his powers when Honda refused to renew his contract (RC handed Honda a 24-0 season on his way out the door).
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and... uh... Its name is forbidden to say here... *gulp*
...
Nr.3 Husaberg
...
Legend says that if you say its name three times in front of the mirror - all four strokes on the earth disappear.
That's like saying I have all the power because I have 7 brands I can ride for.
It from what I understand, they’re not looking at it as a loss, some were tired of him.
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