Caught out by Suzuki support team budget cuts, Safety First Racing is sitting out the 2009 AMA season. That’s the word from team owner (and former racer) Kevin Hanson. Responding to an e-mail inquiry from Roadracingworld.com today, Hanson wrote: Looks like I’m taking the year off as of yesterday. I had some really cool corporate stuff that I was working on with two companies and they just had their budgets whacked last week for marketing. I wasn’t even going after them for ‘racing sponsorship’ it was a nationwide in-store promotional campaign where the racing was essentially a bonus for them. I’ve still got plenty to keep me busy. We’ll still work on bikes at the shop here in Chicago, run the e-commerce site and I’ll still be involved with OnTheThrottle. Looks like I got the jump on 2010 for going after sponsorship! Do you know of anybody that needs to lease a race transporter? I’ve got one collecting dust now. Cheers. Kevin Hanson President – Safety First Racing www.SafetyFirstRacing.com VP Sales & Marketing www.OnTheThrottle.com Arlington Heights, Illinois