Those guys at Liberty Racing are always up to something; this time, they’re skipping the Moscow round of the World Superbike series.
Liberty Racing has been in the headlines for months now; they canceled their Superstock effort last winter, complained very publicly about WSBK management this spring after racing at Monza, and rider Sylvain Guintoli recently left the team when they didn’t provide him a motorcycle at Brno.
Why do we care? Well, last year’s Canadian Superbike champion, Brett McCormick, races for Liberty, and he’s been responsible for some of those headlines, when he had a scary crash at the Assen round. He’s been recovering ever since, and was supposed to return at the last WSBK round at Silverstone. That didn’t happen – Liberty said he was mentally fit to return, but not recovered enough physically to race.
On their website, a press release says he’s undergoing training before the Sept. 9 race at Nürburgring, to make sure he’s ready. The release also says “Looking for the next round, that it will be held Sept. 9 at Nürburgring , the Liberty Team is overhauling its staff organization and sport planning for next year, when the Liberty Racing will be at the start of the World Superbike Championship determined to improve its results.” So, there are changes afoot.
Here’s the full body of that press release.
“There are only few rounds at the end of the SBK World Championship 2012, races that for the Liberty Racing Team aren’t not decisive for the standings, but without any doubt for the Czech Team management the last part of the season is a prelude to a constructive reorganization of its human, technical and logistical resources for the next racing season.
The team is looking to the present by projecting its investment towards the future and on the basis of this consideration, the Liberty Racing Team has consciously decided not to take part in the Moscow Grand Prix, which will take place during the last weekend of August and it represents the absolute premiere on Russian soil for the production-based racing series.
Looking for the next round, that it will be held Sept. 9 at Nürburgring , the Liberty Team is overhauling its staff organization and sport planning for next year, when the Liberty Racing will be at the start of the World Superbike Championship determined to improve its results.
That decision involves also the riders of the Czech team, Kuba Smrž and Maxime Berger, that will arrived in Germany at the beginning of September ready and motivated,  meanwhile the recovery of the third riders of the Team, Brett McCormick, is going on.
The young Canadian during the last GP at Silverstone was able to get back on his bike after his long absence caused by the convalescence from the bad injury happened at Assen. His test on the English circuit, showed that McCormick is mentally ready for racing, but not yet fully recovered from physical point of view.
For this reason the team has agreed with its rider to avoid compromising the final phase of rehabilitation, taking advantage of these additional weeks until the next race at Nürburgring to complete a specific program of intensive training to regain the perfect shape.
The Liberty Racing Team continues in its commitment to motorsport not only animated by the desire to obtain qualitatively significant performance results but also investing in an increasingly profitable and targeted way, thus building its future by analyzing and improving its present with care and foresight.”
