Hydrex Honda part with Harris
Added on Friday, September 4th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Hydrex Honda part with Harris
Hydrex Honda has announced that they have parted company with rider Karl Harris with three rounds of the British Superbike Championship remaining.
Poor results in the current British Superbike Championship campaign have been cited as the reason for the decision, despite Harris currently standing fourth in the rider’s championship.
The Sheffield rider started the season strongly, with two second place finishes at Oulton Park in round two but has not been on the podium since, finding himself languishing in the middle of the field throughout the season. By contrast, teammate Stuart Easton has shown strong form, securing ten podiums and, other than three race retirements, never finishing outside of the top four. Harris, despite being fourth in the standings, lies 137.5 points behind third placed Easton and a staggering 279 points behind championship leader Leon Camier.
“We all really like Karl and he’s a friend to every member of the team so it’s been a really tough decision to make but we’re at a delicate time in the season with Stuart trying to secure second place in the Championship,” said Hydrex Honda owner Shaun Muir. “We were hoping Karl would be able to play a significant part in that but, unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to get anywhere near the form he showed at the beginning of the year or what everyone knows he’s capable of so we’ve decided to act now.”
“It’s never an ideal situation parting company with a rider during a season and it’s been even harder with Karl being so well liked by everyone but we need to have both bikes and riders running at the front. Everyone’s worked really hard and given him every possible bit of support but, sadly, the results still haven’t been forthcoming and it’s a decision that had to be made.
“The team has made a major step forward this year regularly running in the top 3 in the races and in the Championship and we really wanted Karl to be doing what Stuart’s done so we’re sorry it hasn’t worked out for him and would like to publicly wish him all the very best for the future.”
The team have confirmed that they will be seeking a replacement for the remaining three rounds of the season, starting at Croft next weekend.
