Former MotoGP racer Hector Barbera has explained his forced pull out from the FIM World Supersport (WSSP) Championship’s Aragon weekend after bike theft speculations.
Barbera had a tough 2018 after leaving MotoGP in 2017. He started off competing in Moto2 with Pons Racing but the contract was terminated due to sponsorship issues. He joined Kawasaki Puccetti Racing in WSSP to see-through the year.
He scored points in the four races he entered and was classified 17th with 27 points. For 2019, he secured a ride with Team Toth by Willirace abode a Yamaha YFZ-R6 but even before the season started, the problems continued to follow him.
The Spaniard rode with an old engine in Australia and Thailand and had only handful of spare parts but still was able to finish fourth and seventh respectively. He then started his home event at Aragon on backfoot as the financial issues persisted.
Barbera qualified 12th for the Sunday’s WSSP race but the news soon spread that his Yamaha R6 was stolen from the garage with the police already informed about the theft by the team. With no progress to find the missing bike, Barbera couldn’t take part in the race.
Following the drama, the Spaniard took to Instagram to explain what happened where he informed that he had no choice but to pull out from the race and possibly the championship as well due to safety as he used an old engine amid continuing financial issues.
“So far we have come,” he wrote. “For my safety and for the safety of the other riders, today I will not be able to start the race, we do not have the means. and what started as a dream ends as a nightmare.
“The problems of defaults and compliance with the agreement between the one that had to be our main sponsor and the team made this SSP adventure end today, at home, in a race that made me especially excited, without even being able to run the race.
“We started this project with great enthusiasm, premiering all the material in Australia and without training, with a bike practically on the street and even then, with the minimum necessary in the technical part we managed to finish fourth.
“After that race began the financial problems and that made him have to play the race in Thailand with hardly any spare parts and with an engine with too many kilometers. Here the situation is the same, but we can no longer stretch what we have, and out of responsibility I must not even go out on track.
“I’m fourth in the championship [dropped to eighth], and I think with normal equipment I could have been very competitive and have fulfilled my goal for this year, which was above all to enjoy and feel like a pilot again.
“The team also had that illusion, from the owner to the last mechanic. It makes me very angry, because I feel very well and I am working like never before. But I’m not going to give up and I’m going to continue training to be prepared if there is any possibility of continuing with what I love most, which is driving.
“I feel a lot of anger and helplessness, in the third race with these means and after being QUARTERS in the general classification, we have no choice but to accept this situation and continue fighting as I have done in these years.
“I am sorry in the soul for everyone who has come to watch the races and I can not be on track, for all my followers, and for all the people who are always supporting me.” [Note: Barbera’s quote has been translated using Google Translate]
While the decision seems clear now, it is not entirely firm if the bike was stolen or it was pre-decided by the outfit not to start the WSSP race at Aragon. Apart from Barbera, the team has not yet released any statements so far.