The Monster Energy Kawasaki factory team broke the latest “gentleman’s agreement” among the AMA factory teams when Jamie Hacking and Roger Hayden took their ZX-6R Supersport bikes out in promoter practice Thursday at Miller Motorsports Park. In the last 15 years, factory teams have made at least two agreements to not participate in Thursday practice days, and when they have been broken, have asked AMA officials to regulate participation by factory riders to “save us from ourselves”; but efforts to do so have been flawed, with an attempt to keep riders out on the basis of point standings resulting in riders being unable to use Thursday practice to learn a track they had never seen before. Attempts to regulate on the basis of who is or is not a factory rider have failed because nobody can agree on the definition of factory riders. So, last year Yamaha riders in Formula Xtreme could not ride on Thursday, but the Erion Honda riders they competed against for the title could. With AMA team managers unable to reach a consensus on how to regulate Thursday practice in a fair and equitable manner, AMA officials eliminated restrictions and opened up Thursday practice for all licensed riders in 2007. Factory teams have argued that Thursday practice increases costs, and favor spending money on an average of 20 stand-alone private test days held each year by a team co-op, sometimes referred to as a testing cartel. Riders and teams who do not belong to the testing group cannot attend at any cost. Privateers and non-factory teams use Thursday practice to set up their bikes and say the Thursday sessions make the difference between being competitive and not being competitive. Factory riders also object to testing with non-factory riders on Thursday. The latest agreement among factory teams to not run in Thursday practice was broken by Kawasaki Thursday at Miller Motorsports Park. “Because we feel like we’re losing out a little bit if we don’t do it,” Roger Hayden told Roadracingworld.com Friday. “At Road America, I had a problem with my bike in the first session, and by the time I got back to the pits I only got about 20 minutes of practice. Then it rained on Saturday. My first real practice was Sunday morning. “Plus, a couple of our competitors do it, and it seems like it takes us until Sunday to catch up. We didn’t do it with our Superbikes because the other [factory] guys in Superbike don’t do it. Everybody has a gentleman’s agreement. Plus, four days on a Superbike is too much.” Hayden said he would like to see Thursday practices done away with completely or regulated, with officials banning riders who are in the top 10 of the current or previous year’s Championship point standings. Yamaha Team Manager Tom Halverson said he was very disappointed in Kawasaki’s decision to ride Thursday at Miller and feels it may lead to teams riding their Superbikes on Thursdays. “But there’s nothing in the rules saying they can’t be out there,” Halverson said. “They’re in a battle with Erion Honda for the Supersport Championship, and Erion Honda gets to ride on Thursdays.”