Moto Liberty Calls It Quits

Texas firm will not race in 1999

 

 
 
 
 
 

Moto-Liberty will not field a 250 Grand Prix or 600 Supersport team in 1999, I confirmed today.

Moto-Liberty's Takahito Mori won the Daytona 250 GP race last March on a Honda RS250 tuned by former rider and Cycle magazine staffer Danny Coe. Moto Liberty has fielded race winning machines in almost every disciple of AMA racing, from GTU Endurance machines to 250s.

Based out of a little dealership outside of Dallas, Moto-Liberty has had riders such as Takahito Mori, Danny Walker, Randy Renfrow, Al Salaverria and many others ride for them.
One of their first wins came with Tetsuya Arata at the controls in a 600 Supersport race at Road America in the early 1990s. Arata was disqualified after the race for running a non-homologated exhaust system but he showed Ski, Stevens and others the fast way around the Wisconsin circuit. Later, Gerald Rothman won the Vegas 600 race two years ago on a Moto-Liberty Honda CBR600F3.

Off-track, Moto-Liberty has been instrumental in building the 125 GP class here in America with a variety of sanctioning bodies. One thing that the AMA might want to consider, instead of interviewing people for the new Racing Administrator position like I've heard they are doing, is to hire Moto Liberty's Audrey Menarik to help find sponsors for the series.
She's done an incredible job with M-L and with the 125 series.

A statement from Menarik follows:
 

"Moto Liberty will not field an AMA team in the States next year.  Because team owner, Sam Yamashita, will be living in Japan next year, Moto Liberty's office in Osaka will assume the race effort in Japan.  Moto Liberty's rider, Takahito Mori, is expected to race again here.  Yamashita believes Mori is one of the most talented riders on the AMA circuit and beyond doubt the best rider Moto Liberty has ever worked with.  Yamashita would very much like to see Mori get a ride with a team that has the equipment to allow Mori to prove his ability." --Dean Adams