There is a bit of a shakeup in the factory Ducati WorldSBK squad happening right now, as Michael Ruben Rinaldi has been named teammate to Scott Redding for the 2021 season.
This means that Chaz Davies is departing the factory squad, while the team is also sees its name change to “Aruba.it Racing Ducati” for next year.
Episode 167 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a bit of a special show, as we are sharing with you one of our Patreon episodes.
In it, Ducati WorldSBK rider Scott Redding sits down for an interview, and then Steve English and Gordon Ritchie provide some insight and analysis to what Redding discussed.
It makes for an interesting listen, especially as we head into the final round of the 2020 WorldSBK Championship.
American motorcycle racing fans will continue to have a countryman to cheer for in the 2021 WorldSBK Championship, as Garrett Gerloff has seen his contract with the GRT Yamaha squad renewed for next season.
The news comes off an strong race weekend in France, as Gerloff topped the timesheets in FP2, qualified fifth, and fought for a podium during Race 1, which left an impression on the SBK paddock.
This result added to his already noteworthy time at Catalunya, where he scored his first WorldSBK podium, likely made retaining Gerloff an easy choice for Yamaha’s racing program.
In 41 days, Kawasaki plans on unveiling six new motorcycles for the 2021 model year, and no ink has been wasted trying to speculate what those bikes could be.
Could there be a new KLR to rival the Yamaha Ténéré 700 and help Team Green back into the ADV category? Another supercharged model to keep the H2 and H2 SX street bikes company? One more retro-modern play? It’s hard to say.
One thing that did seem for certain was that we would see a new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R superbike, and that is where today’s story takes us.
Now, our Bothan spies have reported in, and given us some clarity on what has only been speculation so far.
Episode 166 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out as our second podcast this week, and this one sees Steve English and Gordon Ritchie on the mics talking about the very wet WorldSBK round at Magny-Cours, France.
Episode 164 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out as our second podcast this week, and this one sees Steve English and Gordon Ritchie on the mics talking about WorldSBK’s return to the Catalunya race track in Spain.
The show starts off with a look at the events of the weekend and the state of the championship, with an extra emphasis on the juggernaut that is Jonathan Rea.
Episode 161 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees Steve English and Neil Morrison on the mics, first talking about the second WorldSBK round at Motorland Aragon, and then looking ahead at the MotoGP round at Misano.
Episode 160 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees us back in the WorldSBK Championship paddock, with Steve English and Gordon Ritchie on the mics in what is the first of two back-to-back rounds at Motorland Aragon.
As usual, the guys talk a bit about the racing weekend thus far (editor’s note: they recorded this show on Saturday), and also take a look at the larger events that are taking place within the World Superbike sphere.
Tom Sykes will spend a third season with the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK racing team, signing a one-year deal with the German outfit this week.
He will be joined in the garage by Michael van der Mark, who will take his first season on the BMW S1000RR next year.
The re-signing of Sykes is no surprise, though the real news here might be the shifting of Michael van der Mark from the Yamaha squad to the BMW outfit.
The 2020 WorldSBK calendar has been given another reshuffle. After the Argentina round was dropped for 2020 last week, this week, the race at Misano has been removed from the calendar, to be replaced by a race at the Estoril circuit in Portugal.
With the removal of Argentina, it made no sense to hold the Misano round on its originally scheduled date in November, but it seems that other factors, such as money and the danger of another flare up of the coronavirus, may have played a roll.
Instead, the Estoril circuit, near the Portuguese capital Lisbon, has been placed on the calendar, with a round to be held from 16th-18th of October.
Episode 157 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a doubleheader, as we see both paddock crews on the mics.
Covering the Czech GP at Brno, we have David Emmett and Neil Morrison on the microphones, while Steve English and Gordon Ritchie bring us an update from the WorldSBK paddock at Portimão.