Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Ducati Austin’s Vic Fasola spoke with Roadracingworld.com Monday, on how the Dunlop buy-up of co-op AMA team test dates came down:

“I had all the dates booked. Mostly with Yoshimura, Yamaha and Kawasaki. Don Sakakura (of Yoshimura Suzuki) called me up Christmas eve and told me that we wouldn’t be able to go even though he had given his word (that we could). He said Dunlop had purchased the dates and it was out of his hands.

“Once I heard that I tried to call (Dunlop’s) Jim Allen. I finally got ahold of him Monday or Tuesday of last week. He said that they had to do what they had to do and they were going to continue on that way, and we couldn’t go. I just wanted to know why that deal was and he seemed to think it was in their best interest. Dunlop had the majority of the teams and they felt it was in their best interest to have a closed test, with just Dunlop teams there.

“Actually, when it first looked like we might be on Michelin (for 2004), I called around to see if there might be a problem with that. And the manufacturers didn’t have a problem with it, they said they didn’t give a shit what kind of tires we were on.”


See related posts:

1/8/2004 Updated Post: Dunlop Buys Up AMA Team Test Dates, Excludes Non-Dunlop Teams

1/12/2004 AMA Director And Dunlop Vice President Buckley Personally Arranged Buyout Of AMA Co-op Team Tests To Stifle Competition