This week marks a first in recent World Superbike history: an Aprilia satellite team in WSBK. The news comes as Jakub Smrz and PATA B&G Racing have jumped ship from the Ducati 1198 platform to the race dominating Aprilia RSV4. The change isn’t a huge surprise for those close the B&G, as the team has been unhappy with Ducati since May because of issues of reliability and other technical issues with the Ducati.
Smrz and B&G Racing will make the switch at Smrz’s home round in Brno this weekend. B&G Racing has been in talks with BMW and Aprilia since May about the possible running of satellite bike from those teams. BMW lost it’s satellite effort when Reitwagen Motosport BMW seemingly collapsed under a lack of funding; but with this announcement, clearly the RSV4 Factory’s winning streak was the swing vote.
“We really wanted to reach this deal. We are confident that as a result of this collaboration, we will be able to prepare for Smrz the best machine in Superbike, if we look at the overall standings. However, changing will not be easy, but we are working very hard in order for us to be at our best at Brno, where we will be in three days time. I’m sure this change will be exciting for our rider too, who has been slowed down by technical issues lately and his hard work did not bear fruit.” stated Team Managers Marco Borciani and Mirco Guandalini.
Source: PATA/B&G Racing
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