Erik Buell Racing->ke1393 may have found a lifeline in the form of Hero MotoCorp->ke4116, the Indian motorcycle company that’s reportedly in the final stages of securing a buyout agreement with the American bike maker. No confirmation has been made on this front, but reports coming out of Thailand indicate that Hero has already acquired the entirety of EBR’s shares, which would make it the sole owner of the beleaguered US company.

The news comes as a welcome surprise for a lot of us who were hoping to see Erik Buell Racing find a new owner after falling into bankruptcy back in April 2015. The same reports also said that Hero MotoCorp has offered Erik Buell full-time employment and continue with his role as the driving force behind the company that bears his name.

On the motorsport front, Hero’s rumored acquisition of EBR could also mean the return of Team Hero EBR World SBK after the racing team was forced to abandon all of its competitive initiatives as a result of EBR’s bankruptcy. It’s worth noting that Hero MotoCorp initially said that it would continue funding Team Hero EBR shortly after news broke of EBR’s closure. But after the “recent bankruptcy of EBR and the re-prioritizing of efforts” by the company itself, it determined that cutting the cord on its involvement with the WSBK was the best course of action.

But now that Hero effectively owns EBR, there’s no stopping the company from bringing the team back to active competitive. That’s great news for fans of Team Hero EBR World SBK, but it’s even better for fans of Erik Buell Racing who have been waiting for the past three months to hear some good news about the company’s fate.

Hopefully, there’s a lot of truth behind these rumors. It would really be exciting to see the company back up and running again.

Continue reading to read more about Hero MotoCorp’s rumored acquisition of Erik Buell Racing.

Why it matters

This is fantastic news if it’s true. Obviously, I’m all for seeing Erik Buell Racing restart its operations as soon as possible. Say what you want about its business endeavors, but the company still made some pretty incredible machines. It would’ve been a shame if these bikes just fell into obscurity. The 1190RS, in particular, was incredible and it definitely deserves to still be around.

Now I’m not the type who gets a little too far ahead of myself so I’m not going to count my chickens before those eggs hatch. Like everybody else, I’m waiting for some official announcement, or at least some confirmation from either Hero MotoCorp or Erik Buell himself surrounding this development. It would even be better if both sides come out with a joint announcement. At least that would really make this rumored acquisition official.

In the event that it’s true, there are still a lot of questions that need to be sorted out before we can all celebrate the official resurrection of EBR. How big of an ownership does Hero have? How big of a stake does Erik Buell have? Will Buell continue to be heavily involved in the company’s business or will Hero MotoCorp put in one of its own people to manage EBR’s affairs?

Most importantly, how long’s it going to take before we see EBR bikes back on the road again?

I want to have some answers to these questions and the sooner we get some kind of clarification from either Hero or EBR, the better picture we can make on what the future of EBR really is.

Cross your fingers that these reports are true!