The Quicksilver/Lexin/Hudson Motorcycles team has entered David Anthony and not its normal rider Bobby Fong in the Motul Superbike class for this coming weekend’s event at Sonoma Raceway.
After a season full of struggles on the track, the rookie team Quicksilver/Lexin/Hudson Motorcycles and race-winning veteran rider Fong had a dispute July 20-22 at Utah Motorsports Campus (UMC) that resulted in the team deciding not to race their Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike in Race Two.
Fong, a professional rider since 2006, went from 12th on the grid to eighth on the first lap of Superbike Race One and battled with a group of riders who ultimately decided third place. Then at the end of lap five Fong dropped out of the battle and pulled into the pits.
Fong, who won six MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 races in 2017 and finished on the overall Superbike podium twice (including when he beat factory Yamaha rider Josh Hayes heads-up in a race for third at VIR) while riding for a different team, said he had been told to watch the temperature of his motorcycle and if it got above a certain temperature it was overheating and he should pull in. Fong said the bike’s temperature went well above that mark, so he pulled in.
On July 22 at UMC, Fong’s Crew Chief Rocky Stargel, who won the 2016 MotoAmerica Superstock 600 Championship with Bryce Prince, told Roadracingworld.com, “It didn’t suffer a mechanical [problem]. It ran hot in the draft, but when he pulled out [of the draft] it cooled off.”
“It’s important to note from a team ownership perspective,” Team Co-Owner Mark Shinder told Roadracingworld.com July 22 at UMC, “that we’ve suffered a lot of DNFs this year that we feel could’ve been avoided by some perseverance. Our bike would’ve finished Race One [at UMC]. It could’ve finished Race Two at Laguna Seca.”
When asked if his remark about perseverance was aimed at anyone specifically, Shinder said, “I think you can figure that out.”
At the same time Shinder and his team blamed Fong for not finishing races, Shinder freely admitted that his Supersport rider Richie Escalante missed the warm-up lap for Supersport Race One at UMC and had to start from the back of the grid because it took his team 45 minutes to simply change the engine mapping in Escalante’s Yamaha YZF-R6.
Although the team made no announcements regarding rider changes since leaving UMC, Anthony is listed as riding on a Quicksilver/Lexin/Hudson Motorcycles Yamaha YZF-R1 on the Motul Superbike entry sheet and Fong is not listed on the entry sheet at all.
Contacted on August 8, Fong told Roadracingworld.com that he planned to be at Sonoma Raceway ready to ride and had informed his team of that fact in writing via an email.
Roadracingworld.com visited the team’s pit area at Sonoma Raceway at approximately 1:45 p.m. local time to learn more about its changes and was told by a Quicksilver/Lexin/Hudson Motorcycles team member that Shinder was not at the track.