As exclusively reported here this week, Anthony Gobert has signed with the Austin Ducati team for 2003, which brings much of the silly season drama to an end in AMA Superbike.

The factory teams shake down like this:

Team Suzuki

Riders: Mat Mladin, Aaron Yates and supposedly Ben Spies (his mother/manager denies this).

Suzuki continues to make noises that if they don't like the 2003 rules package they will race the Formula Extreme class instead on GSX-R1000s. What Suzuki wanted, as of several weeks ago, was the ability to bore their 750 engines by 2mm, which they feel would go a long way in helping them stay competitive.

Ducati

Austin Ducati: Anthony Gobert on 2002/3 machines. Tires: unknown. Crewchief: unknown.

HMC Ducati

Team manager Mitch Hansen will be sewing his deal up shortly with Ducati and then will go about hiring riders and a crewchief.

Honda:

Riders: Miguel DuHamel, Ben Bostrom and Kurtis Roberts on RC51s, with Roberts' still probably fielded out of the Erion Racing transporter.

Will they be getting the latest engine that Colin Edwards II used at Suzuka and is using to dominate the last half of the World Superbike season? Survey says yes.

Kawasaki:

Rider: Eric Bostrom

Will they race in 2003? Still unknown. Kawasaki execs were coy at the dealer meeting this week on whether they will race Superbike in 2003. Fans hope they will, as a motivated Eric Bostrom on the green bike has to be the favorite for the 2003 title as it stands now.

Yamaha:

Barring a last minutes reprieve from the warden, we have seen the last Superbike race in America with a factory R7 in it. Yamaha has lost Anthony Gobert to Ducati and wants desperately for better results in the 600 and Formula Extreme classes in the future; hence they will apply their factory touch there instead.

If so, we will wave good-bye to one of the best looking and coolest sounding Superbikes in the history of the class--the screaming Yamaha YZF R7.

Aprilia:

2004. Maybe.

Riders still uncontracted:
Doug Chandler, Jamie Hacking, Tom Kipp, Steve Rapp, Alex Gobert, and many, many others.