Image: Keith Muir.

Yamaha Racing Team (YRT) has advised Robbie Bugden and Rick Olson that they won’t be retained for 2015, with an announcement on next year’s riders now imminent ahead of the team’s debut with the new 2015 model YZF-R1.

Bugden had a single season with YRT this season, picking up an Australasian Superbike Championship (ASC) overall podium at Mallala alongside a pair of FX-Superbike (AFX-SBK) podiums during the year.

The five-time New Zealand Superbike Champion will now assess options for 2015, however after a long run of factory support he enters the Christmas holiday period uncertain where his future lies.

“The whole news came as a bit of a surprise to me,” said Bugden, who finished eighth in this year’s standings. “I thought I’d been getting some fairly decent results and the information from the team was that everything was fine right up until maybe a week ago. It all went a bit quiet, then I got a text saying that there’s no position available.

“It was disappointing the way it was all handled; I think a bit of honesty would have been nice and maybe even a phone call would have been a better way to go about it. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case… at the end of the day it’s their team and they can put whoever they want on the bike, but it hasn’t left the greatest taste in my mouth.

“I’ve had a couple of calls and have been looking at a couple of different things. I didn’t have too much in the pipeline because I thought I was going to be with Yamaha again, so there’s nothing certainly that we can start to talk about. I just need to weigh up my options.”

Olson meanwhile has fallen victim to a frustrating 2014 campaign, eventually credited 12th overall after struggling to match his pace from previous years during much of the season. During his time with Yamaha, Olson won the 2010 and 2013 FX600 titles, alongside 4-2-3 finishes in the Superbike ranks from 2011 to 2013.

“They’ve given me the call that I’m not in their plans for next year,” Olson confirmed. “I was pretty disappointed. I know I’ve had a rough year, but everyone has a rough patch every now and again – mine just happened at the worst possible time.

“I thought Eastern Creek was better, I matched my time from last year, and hoped it was maybe enough, but obviously they don’t believe that I can do the job, so that was it. I don’t really have a lot of contacts to turn to, I’ve been with Yamaha that long so it’s up in the air at the moment.”

The movements of YRT and Team Honda Racing have been at the centre of the silly season since last month’s Sydney ASC finale, with 2014 ASC and AFX-SBK champion Wayne Maxwell now expected to make a shock switch to Yamaha following post-Moto Expo negotiations, leaving Honda with the Troy Herfoss and Jamie Stauffer combination in a reduced two-rider operation.

Alongside Maxwell at Yamaha will almost certainly be reigning triple ASBK champion Glenn Allerton, who became available following the separation of Next Gen Motorsports and BMW at the end of this season, and Cru Halliday – the lone rider expected to be retained at YRT into the new year.