Calgary Underground Forums - Cars Bikes Music and the Calgary Scene - Jordan Szoke leaves Kawasaki after failed negotiations, Defends #1 Title Anyways.

JP for Calgaryunderground.com

Being fortunate enough to have a chat with one of the more prominent members of our motorcycle community this afternoon, I was shocked to learn that Jordan Szoke won't be on a Kawasaki sponsored bike for this year of the Parts Canada Superbike Series. We are a little bit late on this, but I'd much rather hear it from the horses mouth in situations like these, and it just so happens, the horses mouth is much closer than you might think.

Now, I've always enjoyed Szokes demeanor with respect to public relations, essentially; I'm not fucking around, I'm not feeding you a bunch of dismissive verbiage, this is what's going on, if you can't understand that, then you probably don't need to be reading this. This matter-of-fact approach came through again when describing negotiations with Kawasaki (text is linked to Roadracing World, click for full article)

Quote:

“They made me an offer that was pretty ridiculous,” said 32-year-old Szoke, who has a total of six Canadian Superbike Championships and is the all-time Superbike win leader. “No Championship bonus, no [salary], no expenses, no nothing, get [yourself] to the track, ride for free, only ride Superbike and then there were winnings. They would pay me [bonuses] for first, second and third.

“‘OK,’ I said, ‘I’ll do it just because I know it’s a bad situation. Hopefully in a year it will turn around. I want to work with Kawasaki. I’m loyal to the company.

“I said, ‘I’ll do it, but…’ They sell off the bikes at the end of the year. I said, ‘I want to buy one of the 600s.’ I have to take a truck and trailer to the races anyway because my girlfriend races. So I’ll bring a 600 and I’ll contest and defend my Number One plate on my own dime.

“All I wanted to do was collect the posted contingency. That would be enough to pay for my tires, at least. And the other big reason why I wanted to do that was because all of my personal [sponsor] contracts I would lose so much money in winnings and pay because they would cut them in half because they’re all based on racing two classes. So I’m trying to save every dollar I can now that I’m working for free and paying to go to the racetrack.

“Then they said, ‘No, we don’t want you doing that. Thanks for your service. We’re going to hire a different rider.’ Click. They hung up the phone.

“It was nasty, really. There was no discussion, no debating. It wasn’t like, ‘OK, can I not race the 600 and ride the Superbike only?’ ‘No, we’re not interested in your services. Bye, bye.’”

CLICKING THE QUOTED TEXT WILL TAKE YOU TO THE FULL ARTICLE AT ROADRACINGWORLD.COM

A little bit of insider information for some of you who may not know how contingencies work: Did you know manufacturers may not pay their riders what's posted [contingencies] (that's what contract negations are for), most think that's the case but it's all in your contract (weather the purses are larger, smaller or not at all)

From what it sounds like to me, Kawasaki wasn't going to pay Szoke a contingency if he bought and raced his own 600cc machine. Why? Who knows. One could also speculate that they may have had smaller purses than posted contingency for 1st, 2nd and 3rd in superbike and no championship bonus. On top of all of this, they've handed their racing program for '10 to an outsourced company called Competition Systems, who did the negotiations with Szoke, as opposed to direct dealings with Kawasaki. Sounds and looks to me like it was an attempt at putting an arms length between themselves and the situation. Probably a great idea, as I'm sure the majority of us roadracing fans couldn't deduce that Competition Systems isn't bound to Kawasakis biddings.

In reading another related article: http://insidemotorcycles.blogspot.co...nd-plates.html

It sounds like Jordan will have excellent, but expensive backup for 2010.

We're all well aware of the economic situation, but I'm sure if a rider has brought home 4 or 5 National Championships, it would afford a little more negotiation loyalty than a hang up.

Having said all this, loyalties for me are to a teams rider before the brand. I mean, Hayden rides a friggin Honda right?

Here's hoping that Waznie Racing, Jordan and Amy have another ass kicking nationals season. We support you guys.