After thinking that he might...
After thinking that he might be sitting at home in '09 when Kawasaki initially announced its withdrawal from MotoGP, Marco Melandri found himself at the Qatar pre-season test riding the barely-tested '09 version of the ZX-RR. His initial impressions of the machine were good, but the lack of testing showed in his times that were at the bottom of the leaderboard.
Sense or money finally made the difference for Kawasaki. Just before an early March test in Qatar, Kawasaki announced the continuation of their MotoGP project, but now under the "Hayate Racing" banner, though in the hands of Kawasaki's former race boss Ichiro Yoda ("hayate" is Japanese for hurricane). The team showed up for the Qatar test with a mostly black bike and only new signee Marco Melandri; John Hopkins, one of the higher paid riders in MotoGP, was trying to reach a settlement; there was talk of racing a Stiggy Honda in World Superbike for considerably less money. Melandri believes Hopkins didn't want to risk the money, nor did he want anything to do with Hayate out of fear of a lack of factory involvement.
The last-minute status of...
The last-minute status of the Hayate Racing team was evident from the hastily-relabeled pit stands.
Will he or won't he? It was...
Will he or won't he? It was said that Melandri's commitment to the Hayate Racing effort was contingent upon the '09 ZX-RR's performance. Even though he languished at the back of the pack at the Qatar tests, he admitted that the bike showed major progress, and he decided to wait until the upcoming Jerez pre-season test before making a decision.