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As we were BS’ing all that is motorcycle at lunch, I was reminded of the following incident that I witnessed with my very own eyes at the Daytona Superbike races in 2000 or 2001 - the one where Scott Ru$$ell got ran over at the start of the race (compound leg fracture) riding for Ducati. Anyway, a good friend of mine and riding buddy at the time when I was still in Michigan, Jim Sheldon (now owner of Trackoholics - a track day organization out of Michigan) and I flew down to Daytona to hang with his brother at the races. Let’s just say that we were able to get access to areas that mere mortals did not have.

It was incredible to get that close to the race machines as well as the riders. Christ, Jim jumped the wall with other photographers and started snapping pics of the riders during open practice on Saturday. Very cool. We also had access to the factory trailer areas.

As we were wandering with our bibs strapped on to catch the drool, we came across the factory Honda trailer…and the tailgate was open. As we got closer it became apparent that it was Nicky Hayden’s trailer / crew. What I saw next was pretty disappointing and moreso disingenuous…not illegal, but a little grey in my book.

We saw a guy open a box of Akrapovic mufflers (yeah the Titanium ones) and take a heat gun to the side. Hmmm…take a heat gun to the side of perfectly new muffler? Well as we were standing there un-noticed, the guy peeled back the Akra sticker and replaced it with a Jardine sticker. I nudged Jim and asked quietly “did you just see that?”. He did. At that time we now became noticed. The tech then scurried into the trailer and lifted the tailgate.

Later that afternoon, we went down to Hayden’s bike and took a closer look. At the time I had a full Akrapovic system with that same muffler on my R1 and was quite familiar with its shape, finish, and appearance. Well, you guessed it. Surer than hell, the muffler with the Jardine badge on it was in fact an Akrapovic. We shook our heads a little and pretty much left it alone for the day and watched the races.

That night as we were BS’ing around the campfire (so to speak), we all came to the conclusion that there was nothing technically wrong with what we saw. Jardine (a big sponsor to the Honda / Hayden effort) bought a piece of real estate on the bike for their logo. A choice one at that. Again, nothing technically wrong but its a little shady for my taste. I always think of that phrase about racing “win on Sunday, sell on Monday”. Well, the same applies to exhaust systems. I wonder how many RC51 people went out and got Jardine exhaust systems / slip-ons under the assumption that the successful factory team uses Jardine products.

However, the two of us witnessed the best Akrapovic endorsement one could possibly see.

The moral of the story: Just as in everything in life, not everything is as it appears…even factory race team sponsored parts.

EDIT 27APR2006 - Upon further review, I have to make a correction.  They were in fact carbon fiber mufflers, NOT titanium versions.  This is a pic from the fellas at www.ride-ny.com who had linked the article and jogged my memory. 

Behold the twin Jardipovics: