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HMC Ducati’s Mitch Hansen discovered that he was not getting Ducati support for his AMA Superbike team during the annual Ducati dealer meeting, held on Friday, October 26 in Las Vegas, in conjunction with the Ducati Revs America rally.

“Out at Ducati Revs America, they had the Ducati dealer meeting on Friday, and they announced during the meeting that there would be no AMA Superbike supported team next year,” said Hansen on November 12. “‘I thought, well, okay, that’s too bad.’ Then later that night the Italians came over and told me that they were trying to put something together. It’s a tough situation because I can’t go forward, I can’t contact sponsors and tell them what we’re doing because we don’t know what we’re doing. It’s kind of tough.”