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The Australian competed as a wildcard in WorldSSP in Phillip Island earlier in the year and has stepped into the Pedercini Racing WorldSBK team this weekend onboard Sylvain Barrier's ZX-10R, as the Frenchman continues his recovery from a broken hand sustained in Race 2 at MotorLand Aragon.

The 34 year-old got a late call to ride at Malaysia and seized his chance with both hands as he finished Race 1 at Sepang in a commendable ninth place.

“The team were very happy when I got back to the box, they were all cheering and patting me on the back. It’s a good feeling, you know you’ve done a good job,” said West after the race. “It’s the first time on the bike and it has been a bit crazy, new people, new bike, I’ve had a lot of fun jumping on it.”

He added, “Last week I didn’t know what I was going to do this weekend. It’s great to just jump on the bike and get a decent result. It’s strange to be here in WorldSBK, after so many years and I’ve done every other World Championship. WorldSBK was the only one I hadn’t done and I’ve finally done it today, so it’s a good feeling and I think it’s a good achievement with that result.”

Giving more details on his weekend so far and his hopes for Race 2 on Sunday West also stated, “We wanted to make a change for Race 1 and actually for qualifying as well as I’m starting to understand the bike. But going into qualifying we didn’t want to do it. Going into the race we made a small change and it was the right step so we’re going to make a big change for tomorrow’s warm up, take a risk and see what happens.”