News

Back in action and back on track for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship but with no shortage of stories to follow with a new line-up at OUTDO TPR Team Pedercini, Kohta Nozane (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) withdrawing from the Prosecco DOC UK Round at Donington Park with an injury sustained in testing and a new two-year contract for Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) with Yamaha Motor Europe. Here, key figures from the paddock explain the decisions and stories…

Big news broke on Friday morning with the announcement of Razgatlioglu’s contract extension with Yamaha Motor Europe, keeping the Turkish star tied into WorldSBK until 2023. Andrea Dosoli, Road Racing Manager at Yamaha Motor Europe discussed the new contract during Free Practice 2 at Donington Park, saying: “We are happy and really glad he chose us. It has been a process that started not only a few days ago but started already one and a half years ago. It’s a journey we started together. We understand each other better and from an engineering point of view, our guys understand better and better what Toprak needs and thanks to their ability we are able to deliver a better bike every time.

“I would say this process is something that step by step arrived at the point we decided together there is more to come, we decided together to renew with him for the next two years earlier than expected because the conditions are there. He is happy to work for us, he’s becoming a more mature person and a more mature rider. More and more he is able to demand, to give, proper instructions to the technicians. That’s why we are very happy. It’s an important achievement for us to be able to count on him for the next two years.”

Down the pitlane at OUTDO TPR Team Pedercini Racing, Luke Mossey has stepped into the team following the departure of Italian rider Samuele Cavalieri, who had competed in the first three rounds of the season with the team. Team Manager Lucio Pedercini explained the reasons for Mossey’s arrival, who competed with the team in 2018 as a wildcard, as well as what the future holds for Mossey: “It’s not easy because Samuele decided after Misano that he wants to leave the team and so we were lucky because I knew Luke from 2018, and so he was ready to jump on the bike. This situation is not easy because Luke is in the British championship in Superstock with Kawasaki and many races have the same dates as the World Championship. I don’t know at the moment.”

At the GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team, they are a rider down for the UK Round following Nozane being declared unfit. The Japanese rookie sustained a hairline fracture to his right middle finger in a testing crash at Navarra and completed only a handful of laps in Free Practice 1 before he was declared unfit for the weekend. Filippo Conti, Team Manager at GRT Yamaha, explained the decision for Nozane to not compete at Donington: “Unfortunately, he can’t take part in this weekend’s races because of the injury from when he was in the Navarra test. He’s very sad, the whole team is very sad, but in this case, we have to think more about for the next race. We are still working with Kohta and he is making a very good step by increasing his knowledge and skill and we are looking forward to seeing him in Assen, another new track but I think he can be better.”

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