British Superbike Evo series leader Alex Lowes has spoken out about the furore sparked by his split with the WFR Honda team, saying that he was put in an untenable position after being asked to sign a two-year deal to ride for the team on top of a TEN YEAR management contract.

Lowes, who is running away with the spec-ECU series and giving full FIM-spec Superbike riders a seriously hard time, spoke to bikesportnews.com this morning from the Haslam household, where he stayed last night, about the contract he was offered and why it was a non-starter.

"When we started with this back in December, there was no mention of a contract, I said I would ride for a small salary and some win bonuses, which I was happy with and so were they, or so I thought, until I was presented with a contract after qualifying at Croft which I was told to sign, or there would be no ride on the Sunday," said Lowes.

"After telling them there was no point in my not riding on Sunday on the grounds we were already there, I had someone look over the 20-odd page documents and was told it was the most ludicrous thing he had ever seen. They wanted me to sign for two years to ride, which was no problem, but they also wanted to lock me into a personal management contract for ten years.

"Well, I wasn't about to sign my life away to keep a ride for another year in this country. Don't get me wrong, the team and the crew are mega. I really enjoyed riding for them and we were doing really well on it but I wasn't giving in to that ultimatum. This was never about money, I haven't had any of that.

"So now I'm looking around for another ride. It would be nice to get on another Evo bike and make sure I can win that title as we've done so well to lead it by the margin we have so far but I am open to ride anything, really."