After the public dismissal of Martin Bayer by tyre sponsor AKA, we thought it prudent to allow 5th place Worlds finisher Martin a response:
“I am very surprised and even more sad for the action & decision of my tire sponsor because I have worked very hard and acted very professionally representing AKA in the best possible way all the time.
After the World Championship semi-finals I have personally discussed in an open discussion with the AKA owner Mark Pavidis, presented at the track, my planned tire strategy for the A-main. Mark did not raise a single issue or concern of me planning to run different tires for the A-main final and as such I decided to use a different tire for the A-main final.
If Mark issued during our discussion any concerns or would disagree with my plan I would of course professionaly and fairly follow my sponsorship agreement. To follow any agreement in a professional way has been always my personal absolute priority and like until now during my entire racing career and in personal life I would never break any agreement.
Thanks to everyone in AKA for supporting me during all years together.
I wish them all best for future. Martin Bayer”
Update: A final response from AKA’s Mark Pavidis:
“I want to clear things up as the story Martin tells in his statement is NOT how this scenario happened. First off I have a ton of respect for Martin both on and off the track. With that being said Martin did come to me after the semi with questions about tires for the final. He said he was getting pressure from Xray to make a tire change and run the Proline tires.
He asked me his thoughts. I said “I cannot make your decisions for you and you need to make this decision”. Going back even further to when I was in Germany for the Euros he had some pressure about tires and I agreed he could try Proline tires in a qualifier to get his opinion. I watched his car all week so it was easy to see the advantages and disadvantages when he tried this. This was his worst qualifier all week and I think it even surprised himself.
David Ronnefalk won the Euros on Catapult tires that weekend. I never once pressured Martin to switch cars seeing that his car was clearly off pace. Now with all this being said I have an email from Martin explaining in his own words why he did what he did and completely understood why we had to do what we did. AKA has supported Martin for a long time and it was one of the hardest decisions to let my friend of so many years go from the team. There will be races when your stuff wont be perfect if its your tires, car or engine. But they are your sponsors thru the good and the bad”
Mark was probably too shocked to say anything, but really nothing needed to be said. You made your choice and then AKA made theirs. Why when sponsored by someone would you even consider running a different tire. As we say in the US. How did that work out for you.
typical also of US, the corporation (of AKA) agreed to one thing and then used it against the individual to get rid of them (probably pre planned)
As a side note, AKA has released nothing of any note or value lately, their compounds are clearly being bettered, and their near decade old designs are tired. Bayer will probably do better with a different brand.
As I already said … 1x PL and 2x AKA on the podium. 🙂 Also the JC equipped Maifield was strong as well as Batlle with Pro Circuit! So what?
Lame troll attempt…
Absolutely incorrect on all counts also:
1. AKA release the Catapult and destroy Europe with it. That is something of ‘note’. They also have a habit of releasing revolutionary ideas that seem to find their way onto competitors products, ie the evo mount bead.
2. Their compounds are being bettered? Haha. Are you a chemical engineer? If so please publish the proof that their compounds are being bettered. The fact that proline bought an unreleased to the public x1 compound to the worlds is not proof of this. If anything it proves proline tires did NOT win the worlds, as that particular tire used by TT is not on proline’s product line.
3. Their ‘near decade old designs’ are the benchmark on many surfaces.
4. “Bayer will probably do better with a different brand.” Well I hope he does! Cos he didnt do jack running ProLine at the worlds..
also for me quite strange to think Martin did nothing wrong. By changing the tire at a major event where anybody is watching you that is a huge impact for any sponsor. So very funny to even consider that your sponsor would not be mad after.
IMO – It seems to be common for drivers to do this with their sponsors. Hats off to AKA for putting their foot down and not putting up with such huge disrespect by Bayer.
i think after checking his aka´s after the 30 min 1/2 final, they thought that even the hardest compound aka tire would not holding up 1 hour and so they decided to take pl. ?!
This is not one of those cases where a Pro choose a different brand. It happens all the time. At Cactus this year, 90% of NON-PL drivers were driving Proline X2. JC Drivers, AKA Drivers and such. I have seen other races as well where drivers deviate from it’s Sponsor to run what they felt gave them the best chance to win. Is this right? NO – But is happens all the time. Martin Bayer just seems to be the first to get called out on it.
I call bullshit..
He even ran sweeps at Neo.
Is saw it on his car. And when phil came round to take photos after the runs. He put Aka on his car.
Hes proven he is not a loyal driver.
Goodluck finding another tire sponsor..
..you can´t believe this is an exception?! i see this almost every weekend, even orion heads on os crankase etc.. and this is done by semi-pros… i won´t ever understand this. you got a sponsor? use it or leave it!
Orion/Sirio heads don’t match the O.S. crankcase. 😉 I tried it myself. But you can mount Novarossi-made heads on an O.S.. No one needs to run a different engine when running Orion! Really not!
They do, here’s the proof: http://www.rctech.net/forum/12312944-post14806.html
Jared Tebo ran an LRP ZZ21.C with an orion head on it.
How should that be possible without resizing the holes in the cooling head in a way that it’s not noticable? Or did he use an old Picco-made Orion cooling head (if those may fit?)?
Look at the pictures, here’s the proof: http://www.rctech.net/forum/12312944-post14806.html
At neo … sure, that’s really bullshit !!
picture was posted on Rctech forums so there’s photographic evidence, so you can go there and look.
As Adrien was at Neo this year, it’s no chance Jared drove another engine….
Nobody says it happened at Neo. You are the one saying it happened at Neo this year. In fact this happened in march/april of 2013. Here’s the picture you ignorant peasant:
http://www.rctech.net/forum/12312944-post14806.html
SO THERE’S YOUR PROOF!
That race is well known, and it was a reason for that.
Neo come up as that was the race Maggot wrote in the begining.
Wonder if he talked with Mark before the Neo final also 🙂
http://gallery.neobuggy.net/2014races/Neo14/Neo14/38673567_9PwzFZ#!i=3197767985&k=N5NW7Qw&lb=1&s=O
Hahah exactly..
I never realized how STUPID Bayer was until I saw this photo. Yeah, AKA tires must SUCK at Neo, just ask JARED TEBO.
🙂
Xray should let him go for bringing the their brand into disrepute too. What a knob. It’s almost a slap in the face to all us plebs who have to PAY for our tyres. You deserved this Martin, you brought this onto yourself. now go cry somewhere else. PS… i don’t like your face.
I thought it all the time, and now Martin stated that, that Xray was the black sheep!
If I was ever good enough to have a sponsor regardless of it being the car, tyres, fuel ,engine or even a shirt and cap I would be bending over backwards to try and keep them happy and my sponsorship continuing as they obviously thought that I was worth their time, money and support to be my sponsor ,the least I could do would be to show my support for their support in return wether I came first or last ,
Oh and by the way I’m open to any sponsorship deals , TLR, Novarossi, Nitrotane , Pro-Line, Hitec, Spektrum I use you all with pride 🙂 🙂 🙂
Reading between the lines I think the real friction here is between AKA and Xray. Perhaps Martin has been caught in the middle here?
I think Xray has a problem to accept that competition obviously is above them!
If it was pressure from XRay, then Hudy needs to start buying Martin’s tires from here on out.
Or he needs to hire Osaka or Kanai. 🙂
Exactly! First off, the whole RC world is happy to have one like Pavidis for decades! Not much around like him when hearing to pros for the last 20 years! Secondly, I ‘knew’ it all the time that X*** was the ‘black sheep’. X*** with their ‘our cars are luxury and unbeatable’ BLABLABLA! X*** just doesn’t win anything (except for the last two really great results at the 1/8th Buggy ECs) on highest level and, as things go, everything is faulty … but them!
Tebo Orion head/LRP-OS engine http://www.rctech.net/forum/12312944-post14806.html