Is motorcycle racing too expensive?

December 21st, 2004 at 11:13 am by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider"

Several developments in the last few weeks seem to indicate that motorcycle racing on the professional level is getting way too expensive. The field for the upcoming MotoGP season is only 17 riders and several manufacturers are either not planning to field teams at all or have not yet committed themselves. Today, Buell announced they don’t have the money to run Formula Xtreme, not the financial burden of MotoGP to be sure but still not cheap.

Formula 1 auto racing has been known for this problem for some time but now it’s spreading to the motorcycle world. Riders with million dollar salaries and the unbelievable development costs for new engine and chassis combinations put the hurt on even well funded operations. Maybe a rules change is in order to keep it to a reasonable level.