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A familiar name will be present on the 2022 FIM Supersport World Championship grid at the Motul Argentinean Round as Bradley Smith will debut in the class as a replacement rider for Leonardo Taccini at the Ten Kate Racing Yamaha team. Taccini suffered a crash at Portimao which resulted in a broken wrist, thus meaning he won’t be able to take part in Argentina. Smith’s signing will be crucial for Ten Kate Racing, as they chase the Riders’ and Teams’ Championship.

Smith’s career has spanned three decades across multiple disciplines, with him being a 125cc World Championship contender since 2006, taking a first win in the class in 2009, on his way to second overall in the Championship. Moving up to Moto2™ in 2011 and taking podiums, 2013 would see Smith graduate to MotoGP™, where he’d be a regular top ten finisher in his rookie season, on his way to tenth overall in the Championship. Smith improved further in 2014 and was able to crack the top five on multiple occasions, taking a podium in Australia at Phillip Island in third, behind race nine-time World Champion race winner Valentino Rossi and at the time, four-time World Champion Jorge Lorenzo.

2015 would be another consistent year for Smith as he finished every single Grand Prix inside the top ten, a run which started at Misano in 2014 and which would run until Termas de Rio Hondo 2016. A career-best of second at Misano in 2015 helped Smith to sixth overall in the Championship, his best year in the premier class. He led the factory KTM team’s debut in MotoGP™ in 2017, taking two top ten finishes before finishing the following season with more top ten finishes and a best of eighth overall. After that, Smith finished as runner-up in the inaugural MotoE™ World Cup standings with four podiums before returning to MotoGP™ with Aprilia, taking a best result of 12^th at Jerez. As well as that, Smith is also a Suzuka 8 Hours race winner, back in 2015 with Yamaha.

Speaking about his latest adventure, Smith is excited to show what he can do: “What a great opportunity for me to join the Ten Kate Racing team. After a tough season with injuries, it’s a great way to end the year, so thank you to the team for asking me for the Argentinean Round. There is a lot coming at me in Villicum: the bike, the tyres, the track and the WorldSBK Championship are all new to me. But having been at the circuit in Portimao, I’m looking forward to being part of an ultra-competitive World Supersport category.”

Kervin Bos, team manager for Ten Kate Racing Yamaha, was just as excited to welcome Smith but passed on his best wishes to Taccini: “First of all, we are extremely sorry that Leonardo Taccini cannot participate in Argentina due to his broken wrist. Surely that was an important weekend for us as we would have ridden with him there last year, unfortunately the injury makes that impossible.

Because of this, we welcome Bradley Smith to the team, a well-known name in the motorsport world. We are very curious to see what we can achieve with him in Argentina. It will be a busy few weeks with races following each other in quick succession. We are looking forward to working with Bradley and will of course do everything we can to tune the Yamaha YFZ-R6 to him as much as possible, so he can show the best of himself. We wish Leonardo well and hope to see him back on his own bike soon.”

Find out what Smith can do this weekend with the WorldSBK VideoPass!