Good-Bye Hayate

The Hayate Racing Team was born on the ashes of the late Kawasaki team who officially pulled out of the MotoGP championship last January, now according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Kawasaki has decided also to pull the plug on the Hayate team and will not take part in the 2010 season.

The team has already starting selling trucks and the hospitality, spare parts and the rest of the equipment will be sold off at the end of the championship.

Kawasaki’s contract with Dorna and MSMA was till 2011 and the Spanish manager was willing to take the Japanese manufacturer to court for breach of contract, but before the season opener in Qatar they brainstormed the birth of the Hayate, with Dorna doing almost all of the funding and Marco Melandri as the sole rider.
During the Motegi race several Kawasaki top honchos showed up in mufti and there was talk that Kawasaki was reconsidering its position and thinking of backing the team with full factory support especially after Melandri took second place at Le Mans, but apparently Melandri’s current 8th place in the standings is not enough against the hard hitting economic crisis.

With no team and a one year contract, Marco Melandri is on the market again, and gossip has it that he’s going to pair up with Marco Simoncelli in team Gresini.