STEVE MARTIN QUITS DFX HONDA
 Following further
discussions with DFX Honda team boss Daniele Carli yesterday, Steve
Martin has decided it is not possible to find a workable solution to
continue racing with the Italian squad for the remainder of the season.
"I've
based my decision on the fact that this whole situation has now become
unworkable," Steve explained. "I want to race competitively and safely,
and you can't do that when the plans change continually with which
races you'll be riding at, at every race weekend you have different
people working on your bikes - some qualified to do so and some not -
totally different set-ups, components and systems on each bike,
different engines in each bike, different swing arms, no money,
development or pre-race preparations going into your bikes and just
continually starting from scratch every Friday of a race weekend, with
a lottery of how the bikes and team are going to be."
Steve was
initially informed two months ago that the DFX Honda team was
experiencing financial difficulties and was unable to run two riders
for the remainder of the season. As team-mate Michel Fabrizio is a
Honda Europe funded rider, this meant it would be Steve's ride in the
2007 World Superbike Championship in jeopardy.
Further
discussions then revealed that sufficient funds could be made available
to run Steve at the third round of the WSBK Championship at Donington,
and also the following three races at Valencia, Assen and Monza, on a
race by race basis.
Whilst this solution was not ideal, it at
least provided the experienced and gutsy Aussie rider with consistency
until the season's mid point and also allowed time for additional team
funding to be secured.
"But the goalposts were then changed
again three weeks after that when the team notified me that they now
didn't want to allocate money to running me at Assen, but only at the
three remaining Italian rounds at Monza, Misano and Vallelunga," Steve
continued.
"This left me with a difficult decision as to the
best way forward - either stay with DFX for the spread out three
Italian races and compromise a potential full time ride for the rest of
the season, or leave and chance not riding at all.
"When Kev
(Curtain) asked me to stand in for him on the Yamaha in the World
Supersport Championship at Assen it was a good and timely opportunity.
I could have continued on the Yamaha at the following round at Monza,
but thought I should try and do the right thing by everyone - my chief
mechanic as the last remaining member of my bike crew, the DFX team and
also to continue to fulfil my contractual obligations and agreements
that I had made with the team - and get back on the DFX Honda again at
Monza."
Despite having made some good progress with system and
component development on the Honda CBR1000 machine during recent
testing, these improvements have never come to fruition with being
installed in Steve's race bikes due to lack of funds.
This,
coupled with Steve not being favoured with attending all of the team's
testing days, has understandably created both frustration and ongoing
bike performance challenges for the Aussie. And further demonstrating
that the team are not serious about running Steve competitively, is him
having to sit out a two day test this week at the new and revised
Misano circuit - a round where DFX expected Steve to race the Honda.
Steve
explained, "My contract states that both riders in the team must be
provided with exactly the same machinery, parts, systems and technical
treatment. But this hasn't been the case by a long way for the most
part of the season to date, so I've been fighting an uphill battle
going into every race to even try and make the bike competitive against
my team-mate, let alone the rest of the field.
"As a rider, and
to be competitive, you need to be able to concentrate and focus on
training, riding and developing a bike and I've done my best to do this
with DFX in what has been a difficult and unsettling situation over the
last few months.
"But to continue riding the Honda with DFX
for the two remaining Italian rounds would just be making up numbers on
the grid and there's no point or benefit in that for anyone. Doing one
race here and one race there, and on an undeveloped bike won't enable
me to compete competitively to the best of may ability or, allow me the
opportunity to look at other options of an alternative ride for the
remainder of the season, which is what I now intend to do," Steve
concluded.
Based at his European home in Switzerland, Steve will
now be pursuing potential avenues for an alternative place in the
motorcycle racing arena for 2007 and will be present at the next round
of the WSBK Championship at Silverstone (UK) on 25/26/27 May.
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