Crescent Suzuki Racing team is run by Paul Denning (who was the team principal of the Rizla Suzuki MotoGP effort) and Denning had shifted his attention to WSBK when Suzuki decided to withdraw from MotoGP citing economic slowdown as the reason. Paul Denning had the blessings of the Suzuki factory but was not running the official Suzuki team which was with Alstare and Francis Batta when it withdrew from WSBK along with MotoGP. Denning was running a Suzuki team in British Superbikes or BSB and decided to move up to WSBK and sought technical support from famous tuners Yoshimura to develop the WSBK motorcycles. 2013 has been a reasonably good year for Crescent Suzuki which has been sponsored thus far by Fixi and went by the name of Fixi Crescent Suzuki team with rider Leon Camier riding the wheels of the Suzuki GSX 1000 R despite being injured.

Fixi had decided to end its sponsoring at the end of this year and the ever resourceful Paul Denning has been able to bring Voltcom as the new sponsor for the Crescent Suzuki team from 2014 onwards. Paul Denning also proved to be an opportunist when he dropped Leon Camier without ceremony and snapped up Eugene Laverty who had finished second in the standing in 2013 with nine wins to his credit on the Aprilia RSV4 Factory. Laverty is a refugee from MotoGP and has always said that he would like to get back to the category if he had a good ride which was apparently promised to him by Luigi Dall’Igna of Aprilia in conjunction with the Aspar team. The whole effort came a cropper thanks to Dall’Igna succumbing to the seductions of Ducati Corse. This left Laverty in the wilderness and Denning did not waste time by lapping up Laverty probably with a promise of a factory Suzuki MotoGP ride when Suzuki re-enters MotoGP in 2015. Very interesting this story, but it leaves us with a question.

Right now Valentino Rossi’s manager Davide Brivio is in charge of Suzuki’s MotoGP testing efforts. If the factory enters MotoGP in 2015 who will run the team? Brivio or Denning. There have been some preposterous rumours that Valentino Rossi will end up on the Suzuki when his contract runs out with Yamaha at the end of 2014. But then this is motor racing where you can never say never. The question is in all this where do Denning and Laverty stand? It is most certainly a question that is worth asking.

Eugene Laverty takes to the track on the Voltcom Sponsored Suzuki GSX 100 R belonging to team Crescent Suzuki.

Eugene Laverty takes to the track on the Voltcom Sponsored Suzuki GSX 100 R belonging to team Crescent Suzuki.