US MotoGP: Yuki Takahashi dumped by Scot Honda?

Yuki Takahashi’s rookie MotoGP campaign appears to be over after just seven races, with speculation rife that the Scot Honda team has axed the Japanese rider for the remainder of the 2009 season.

It is looking increasingly likely that the Scot team will field just Hungarian Gabor Talmacsi for the rest of the season, with Takahashi forced to step aside with the team only having two RC212V Honda bikes.

Obvious questions marks were raised when Talmacsi joined the team in Catalunya last month about how the team would deal with a flag-to-flag race, with no spare bike for either rider to switch onto.

The casualty has been Takahashi, who had always looked in a precarious position from the moment former 125GP world champion Talmacsi signed.

Talmacsi was able to bring in serious investment to help safeguard the future of the Scot Honda team, which was struggling financially to survive the global recession.

Takahashi on the other hand had no financial backing behind him and his short spell in MotoGP has been littered with a series of cash-draining crashes.

Takahashi has arrived in California ahead of this weekend’s Laguna Seca race, with MCN spotting him queuing for a hire car at San Francisco Airport.

But he is believed to have told MCN sources that he is definitely riding this weekend, and that Talmacsi will be the lone rider for the remainder of the season.