Hacking out for the Season

I made a quick trip to LA yesterday to visit Yamaha in Cypress. There, among other things, I met with Yamaha racing managers who told me that they expected their rider Jamie Hacking to sit out the remainder of the 1998 season.
Hacking, according to those same managers, broke his pelvis cleanly in two in his Brainerd crash and he has been told by Doctors not to race again this season. In fact Hacking is not supposed to be doing anything but sitting in a chair or laying in bed, as the bone needs time to realign itself and heal.
Hacking has been unable to do much even without the burden of a broken pelvis: his home in South Carolina was being blasted by high winds from Hurricane Bonnie.

No plans at this time have been made for a replacement rider and it is unknown if one will be sought out. Aussie riders Damon Buckmaster and Martin Craggill are known to be trying to obtain rides in America for 1999 and both will no doubt contact Yamaha US regarding the open seat at Colorado and Vegas.

On The Racing For Minimum Wage Front: Mat Mladin said recently that the disparity between Australian Superbike riders' salaries and their American counterparts is incredible: Mladin estimated that front-line Aussie Superbike riders, factory guys, make less than $10,000 a season in salary. AMA front-runners such as Mladin can make as much as $400,000 per season and Miguel 'How'd I break my leg? I jumped off my wallet'  DuHamel is reputed to make nearly (or over, depending on who is bending your ear) one million dollars a season racing Superbikes in America.
--Dean Adams