Well every media outlet is subject to national bias, be it crash.net for Britain (which I certainly don't think is too bad), or mcn.au for the Aussies or Superbike Planet for the Yanks, etc.

With Campetella I think there were genuinely grounds for optimism for Chaz, Taro, and their 125cc riders last year. Campetella had been generally the top privateer team from 2002-4 and scored some podium finishes with Franco Battaini, Sylvain Guintoli and Randy de Puniet. Check the archive results, they did well, were top 6 in the championship with Battaini. They'd had a bit of a crap 2005 by comparison, but for 2006 had expanded to a four-rider outfit with a new 125cc team, and had a new main sponsor ('Ticino Hosting', who are an utterly lame Italian internet service provider, I wouldn't bother with them ) so their declaration that they'd have two LE bikes in the 250s seemed reasonable when they first said it as they've had the top private bikes before very recently. It wasn't just Brit bias, there were high hopes for the whole squad.

But as it turned out the year was a disaster. It became obvious from the first test that a second LE bike wasn't coming so Chaz was back to the bog-standard one like what he'd had with Aprilia Germany (although of course the competition had moved on slightly). Then Taro badly broke his leg at Jerez [exactly a year after he did in 2005 - what terrible luck] and Chaz got the LE bike. After a few races with poor results all round (Andrea Ballerini replaced Taro) Chaz was dropped after being taken out by Cluzel at Le Mans and Ticino Hosting disappeared off all the bikes as they'd not come up with the money they'd promised. Andrea Iannone, who'd been going pretty well on the 125 machine to my eyes, was also dropped and his non-scoring but financially-backed teammate stayed. Franco Battaini returned for financial reasons [Italian riders being preferable] after a shocking time in World Superbikes (does anyone remember he was there?) but didn't do anything, and neither did Taro when he returned from injury. Ballerini was the constant and was consistent with his results but not quick, and he's won a (wet) GP.

There are of course similar stories up and down the pitlane in every class every year. Something doesn't go right and it messes things up for a bunch of people. I've always liked Campetella as a squad, particularly when they had those lurid-coloured bikes (pink, yellow and black...yes!!!). They honestly had good intentions for Chaz, Taro, Andrea Iannone and Simone Grotzkyj. But we all know racing involves risks and when the sponsor you've risked things on doesn't pay, you're up the creek as you've got to pay for things like LE bikes. I hope things work out better for Taro, Fabrizio Lai and Pol Espargaro (he's good) in 2007 with them in terms of the money and results.

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Anyway...

Was just sounding out a note of caution for Westy fans, basically. If you're expecting this move to magically put him at the front every race, you'll probably be disappointed.

Matteoni are these days a private squad - last year they ran Baldolini (who's swapped seats with Westy for 2007; he finished 16th in 2006 with a best finish of 8th), Alessio Palumbo (who didn't qualify for several events) and Roberto Tamburini in 125s (who did just about nothing). In 2005 Mirko Giansanti - who like Alex de Angelis is one of the best guys never to win a 125 race - was midfield on them.

I love to see the private guys beat the factory ones and Loca's showing on the Toth LE bike was a breath of fresh air, but it's not guaranteed to be success for Westy by any means. That said, if he does well, it would be massive boost for both rider and team, and might shut you lot up about Westy and injustice