http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2008/Oct/081016rn.htm
Ryder Notes: How HRC became PRC (Puig Racing Corp)
by julian ryder, on the ground in Malaysia
Thursday, October 16, 2008
I assume that by now you've all read Alberto Puig's astonishing attempt at character assassination of Nicky Hayden on the official MotoGP site.
How, you may ask yourself, does such a tirade end up on the official website of the Championship? The answer lies in an interview Nicky gave to the important Spanish daily paper El Pais; it was headlined 'Pedrosa's agent runs Honda.' Nicky made plain his respect for Honda and the work his team puts in but regretted in quite sober terms the friction caused not by Dani but by Puig.
On reading this, Puig didn't contact El Pais, he rung the guys who write motogp.com. That would have been an internal phone call as Puig has an office in Dorna's HQ from which he runs the MotoGP Academy that does a good job bringing on the next generation of racers with the help of Red Bull and KTM.
I understand that Puig would also have seen the copy before it went live--so he can't claim he was misquoted. Nicky was asked about it today, and at first refused to elaborate. Then he decided to make sure we understood what he had said. First he made it clear that he thinks that Puig runs the team, that's what he said to El Pais and that's what he meant to say. He doesn't give a stuff about the wall down the pit. As for Puig's frankly barking suggestion that Nicky was upset about losing access to Dani's data, Nicky told the pre-event press conference that he hadn't seen any data from that side of the pit for many a month, let alone used it but that 'He [Dani] sees everybody's data.'
The thing that exercises my mind is this is what Nicky Hayden, a guy you know will always do the right thing, is saying while he's still a Honda rider. What's he going to say when he's free to say what really happened?
ENDS