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Musical saddles have started in the 500Gp and Superbike worlds.
Trying to separate the rumours from the truth is the name of the game.
Rumour has it that Garry McCoy will stay with Red Bull Yamaha but that the other rider for the team Regis Laconi will be dropped.
There has been an approach to Noriyuki Haga to switch from Super bikes to 500Gp. Haga is in favour of the switch.
Neil Hodgson British superbike rider has signed to ride WSBK for Castrol Honda with Colin Edwards. This leave Slight without a seat for the new year, it is most likely he will retire.
Loris Capirossi is considering an offer from Ducati to switch to WSBK. Ducati are also considering going GP racing in 2002 when 4 stokes can race against the two strokes. Alex Barros is possibly going to WSBK.
Kenny Roberts is staying with Suzuki and Gibernau has already sign to be his team mate.Aprilia have still not sure if they will continue with their 500 V twin, Mc Williams will stay if they continue, if they decide against it he may get a 250 ride or rumour has it he may make it on to the Honda of the Pons team if they keep the team going.
MY two bob\'s worth. The decision to allow 4 strokes to race in the 500GP in 2002 will cause major disruptions to the superbike fields. Neither of these two classes will come out on top. The swapping of riders will leave both fields depleted and the next couple of years will probably give mediocre racing at best.
The passing of the Foggy era, has left the fields lacking in depth and with Slight most likely going this year, and Haga picking up a possible ride in the GP next year makes for a sad looking field for the WSBK in 2001.
There is a lack of new blood and this will cause less of a drawcard to the punters and thus the sponsors, and so the downhill spiral starts. If WSBK are to provide a good years racing in 2001 they would do well to level out the playing field and allow all configurations of motors have the same cc rating. The only restriction should be a maximum weight limit.
