For reaction to the announced and published 2009 AMA Superbike Series rules and class structure we contacted, (or attempted to contact), representatives from each of the major motorcycle manufacturers currently involved in AMA National road racing in America. To hear the position of Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A., we contacted Bruce Stjernstrom, who oversees the company’s racing activities in his position as Director of Marketing. Roadracing World: What are your thoughts on the 2009 AMA Pro road racing rules and class structure announced by Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG) July 29 and can you tell us about your plans for next year? Stjernstrom: We don’t have any plans at this point to announce. One of our concerns, because we had commented on this prior, was having two somewhat similar 1000cc classes and what is that going to do for that class. You’re going to have a handful of bikes in each class. I don’t know how that’s going to help anything. That doesn’t seem to make sense. The direction we had already gone, even in the previous AMA management, was to go to one 1000cc class. So we were a little surprised, I guess, when we saw they were still recommending two. RW: So you weren’t aware they [DMG] were going in that direction? Stjernstrom: Well, they had, yeah, they had said that, and that’s why we had talked with them. I think, I’m assuming other manufacturers or teams had talked to them. To us here at Kawasaki, more than anything, it seems like having two somewhat similar classes is going to split up that category, and it doesn’t make sense. One of our goals from the beginning was we want to race against the best. And to split it up so people can move from one place to another to basically try to, I don’t know, if people want trophies I guess they can go buy them, but it seems like you would, I thought this was professional racing. Shouldn’t people want to race against the best? RW: So you’re worried that the “factory teams” will split between American Superbike and Factory Superbike and there will possibly be only a few bikes in Factory Superbike? Stjernstrom: Yeah. I’m not sure what everybody else is thinking, but that could happen. What is a privateer’s number one goal? Not to be a privateer, so he would want to race against the good teams to prove his mettle. So I don’t know how you do that in this situation. RW: Looking at the two classes and the stated goal to be inline with World Superbike rules in 2011, would those two classes eventually merge back into one? Stjernstrom: We haven’t heard about any intention to merge them together, but it seems like now would be the time to do that. One of the things that made sense, I think, was to consider world unity in Superbike rules. That seems to make a lot of sense from the standpoint of not only the OE teams but aftermarket teams. There would be more aftermarket parts available, more sharing of technology. It just seems to me that would be a really good thing for road racing. I think that was something that we, at Kawasaki, found quite attractive was that regardless of where you are in the world people basically had similar standards to race under would make a lot of sense. RW: So that part of their announced plans you like? Stjernstrom: Yeah. RW: What do you think about Daytona Superbike? Stjernstrom: We weren’t in agreement with the horsepower limitations in the [Daytona Superbike] class and the dynoing. We don’t think that’s the right direction for us here. For the most part I think the rules that they were proposing were fine except for the limitations on horsepower and the dyno testing. And some of the questions we had about the eligible equipment list. But generally the Daytona Superbike rules are pretty similar to Supersport as they currently stand except for those things. RW: Do you plan on having a Kawasaki factory road race team in AMA Pro road racing in 2009? Stjernstrom: We’ve always intended to do that. We’ve never not intended to do that. We’re just not totally on board with what’s been offered. We’ve been racing for 40 years. We enjoy it. It’s a big part of how we want to present our products to our customers and our dealers. And we get a lot of enjoyment out of it, as well, as a company. And it’s a good way to improve your products through racing and that was one of our key goals when we talked to DMG. We need the opportunity within the rules to be able to improve the products. I think we’ve had a good relationship and report with them since they came onboard. I don’t think that’s been an issue at all. RW: You deal with all of Kawasaki’s racing activities. During DMG’s purchase and takeover of AMA Pro Racing have you seen any controversy or issues like this in the other racing disciplines? Stjernstrom: No, I think the focus has been on road racing, just generally at this point. Everybody’s got a lot of investment in time, what they have in the development of products. And it’s not just the factories. It’s a lot of privateer teams that have taken racing seriously. There are some privateer teams that have put a tremendous amount of effort into this and they may not have been heard in this whole process to this point, but they have a lot of stake as well, companies that are developing aftermarket parts for racing purposes or consumers. So there’s a lot at stake here. Not just five or seven OEMs.