Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

In the 2002 AMA road race season, there will only be nine factory Superbikes in competition, but there will be 12 factory-supported Formula Xtreme bikes from three of the big four manufacturers. With the manufacturers’ support showing the obvious importance of the class and the recent move toward 1000cc four-strokes in international classes, why is there no Kawasaki Formula Xtreme bike on the AMA grids?

“I don’t know,” initially responded Kawasaki’s Road Race Manager Michael Preston, “We talked about it. We would actually like to do something like that. We want to expand and do everything that we can. For us all indications point that we’re going to go to a 1000cc (Superbike class), but there hasn’t been anything that said that we are. So that’s kind of holding us back a little bit to wait and see.

“We just came out with a new ZX-9R. They updated it and think it’s better. We thought, ‘Wow! This would be a great bike to modify.’ But we don’t know what direction it would go in or what direction Kawasaki’s going to go in.

“We know that (Kawasaki) are going to make a new (990cc 4-stroke) GP bike. So if Superbike does go to a 1000cc here in America, will we be able to get some derivative of the new GP bike? Or what direction will it go? We don’t have those answers. We’ve kind of shelved Formula Xtreme for the time being until we find out a little more concrete where we’re going to go.”

Several former factory Superbike riders, including Mike Hale, Steve Rapp, Tom Kipp, Jason Pridmore and Damon Buckmaster plan to ride both 600cc Supersport and Formula Xtreme. Kurtis Roberts won the Championship in both classes in 2000. What about building a bike for Tommy Hayden to ride in Formula Xtreme?

“Maybe we’re changing the course,” answered Preston. “Or I don’t think it’s us that’s changing the course but I guess we’re part of the trend. We’re definitely seeing that people are changing to a one class only type of affair. It’s pretty hard to win two Championships. It can be done. There’s no doubt about it because it has been done in the past, but it’s the same reason why all of these guys are going to Superbike only. In the case of Tommy and Eric, they want to concentrate on a class, get in there, put in all of the effort they can, try to be able to win it without jumping from one bike to the other, which is extreme. There’s a pretty extreme difference between a 600 and a Formula Xtreme bike, or for that effect, a Superbike. But for me personally, Formula Xtreme is a Hell of a training ground for a Superbike rider.”

What about Kawasaki helping out or setting up a satellite or support team?

“We have talked about it,” admitted Preston. “But it never has materialized. Then again with the current economy situation and what have you, it didn’t seem feasible to put all of these teams out and can you do it with the right effort, you know what I mean? Some of the teams out there are really good, but unfortunately, they’re on other brands. We get a lot of people saying, ‘Hey, we’ll do this and we’ll do that.’ But it doesn’t seem like, how do I say it, a viable team for us. For us to be able to support a team if they don’t have enough to do it, is it going to be right? Can we give it enough support without cutting out the classes that we’re definitely directly involved in?

“For me personally, it’s real gratifying because it already appears that we’re one of the boys. Or how should I put this, one of the teams. We’ve only been around for two years! We’re still learning. I’m still learning for sure. I just got the program thrown at us. We’ve been trying to make it work, and I think we’ve been real successful.

“But that’s some of the long-range goals and the long-range plans that I had. Once we get established we need to start building some other teams maybe as a farm team where we can draw riders from or run different classes or whatever, but again, we’re just two years old.”