Michelin may quit British Superbike over tyre theft

Donore, Ireland--Michelin is re-thinking its participation in all motorcyle competitions following the theft of a racing tyre from one of its trailers at the Mondello Park track as part of the British Superbike Championship.

Michelin's head of motorcycle competition, Nicolas Goubert said, "Given this sort of incident, we are obliged to seriously consider whether we can afford to participate anywhere outside the MotoGP arena with state of the art products."

Goubert exlained, "Unfortunately, during the last event at Mondello Park our Michelin truck got broken into and a single tyre went missing. Would a "sneak thief" take all these risks to grab a single tyre that he would probably not even know where it can be used? I don't think so! Is it the first time ever that a racing Michelin tyre goes missing? No, unfortunately not, but it is the first time somebody has broken into one of our trucks on a paddock during a race week-end in order to steal one."