The tough economic times being faced by the global motorcycle industry led to six-time and defending Canadian Superbike Champion Jordan Szoke being released by his former team. That’s the word from Mike Crompton, who was Szoke’s Crew Chief for the last four seasons when they worked together on the Canadian Kawasaki factory team and who is now the owner of Canadian Kawasaki’s new outsourced road race team, Competition Systems Kawasaki. “There’s all sorts of stuff [rumors] flying around now, but you know the state of the industry. It’s bad,” Crompton told Roadracingworld.com Friday. “I don’t really care to air our agreements or disagreements in public. I’m looking forward to working with Jordan in the future when the economic state of the industry improves. Jordan is a close friend of mine. I worked with him for four years. I think the world of him. It’s a bad situation economically, and we couldn’t come to an agreement. That’s all I can say.” Earlier today, the team announced that it was continuing in the 2010 Parts Canada Superbike Championship with 21-year-old Alex Welsh, who raced for Canadian Kawasaki in 2009 and finished on the Superbike podium one time in seven races. Szoke is currently looking for other opportunities inside and outside of Canada.