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The 2022 campaign for the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship gets underway at MotorLand Aragon for the Pirelli Aragon Round, and it marks the start of one of the unpredictable seasons in the Championship’s history. With the majority of last year’s top ten moving on to pastures new, the Aragon Round provides a clean slate for the 30-strong field, guaranteeing edge-of-your-seat action from the get-go.

REIGNING CHAMPIONS HOPING FOR A STRONG START: a new line-up for MTM Kawasaki

Out of six races in 2020 and 2021, MTM Kawasaki riders have won four Aragon races and the team will be looking for similar success in 2022. Yuta Okaya remains with them, hoping to improve on his double top-four finish in 2021, whilst he’s joined by Dutch duo Victor Steeman and Ruben Bijman. Bijman is yet to score a point at Aragon while Steeman’s best finish, sixth place, was in 2019. Of all the team, it’s Steeman who was fastest in the preseason test at Aragon, whilst also being a race winner for KTM in 2021 at Most.

They will once again face stiff competition from up and down the field, with 2021 runners-up Fusport – RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki fielding a two-bike effort in 2022. Dirk Geiger impressed during a one-off appearance at Portimao with two top-six results and has secured a full-time seat for 2022 and he will be joined by Troy Alberto, who becomes the first Filipino rider in WorldSSP300. Whilst it’s a youthful squad, they’ll hope to be quick learners once the season commences.

Brazilian Ton Kawakami leads the AD78 Team Brasil by MS Racing’s effort for 2022 alongside fellow countryman and rookie, Humberto Maier. Whilst Maier is making his WorldSSP300 debut in 2022, Kawakami is heading into his fourth season, still in search of a first win. His best result at Aragon is sixth, secured in Race 2 in 2021. French duo Sylvain Markarian and Samuel Di Sora will line-up for Leader Team Flembbo in 2022, with Markarian searching for his first finish at Aragon and Di Sora aiming to build on his circuit-best result of fifth. Di Sora was a race winner during the final round of 2021 at Portimao, so he’s got plenty of pace.

THE PATHWAY TO SUCCESS: Yamaha R3 Cup graduates for 2022

Four riders who competed in the Yamaha R3 bLU cRU European Cup will debut in WorldSSP300 in 2022. Fenton Seabright will race for Vinales Racing Team alongside Marco Gaggi, combing a rookie with experience on the grid. Inaugural Champion Iker Garcia Abella joins Yamaha MS Racing alongside 2017 Champion Marc Garcia; the first-ever WorldSSP300 Champion will lend his experience to Garcia Abella’s rookie season whilst also being a favourite ahead of the season himself. Greece’s Ionnais Peristeras will link up with ProGP Racing alongside Gabriele Mastroluca, after he finished eighth in last year’s standings. Matteo Vannucci made only one Yamaha R3 Cup appearance in 2021 but claimed pole position at Misano and secured a podium. He joins AG Motorsport Italia Yamaha for 2022 in WorldSSP300, whilst Humberto Maier is the fourth full-time graduate from the Yamaha R3 Cup to debut in WorldSSP300.

LOOKING TO KEEP UP STRONG FORM AT ARAGON

Bruno Ieraci (Prodina Racing WorldSSP300) will embark on his fourth WorldSSP300 campaign and has shown strong form at Aragon in the past, having finished inside the top ten in all seven races he has run at the Spanish circuit. He will have Hugo De Cancellis as his teammate, with the Frenchman a podium finisher at Aragon in 2019. Inigo Iglesias (SMW Racing) has claimed four points finishes in his six races at Aragon, with a highest finish of 14^th as he looks to build on that; he also finished 2021 in fine form, with three podiums in the last four races. He is joined at SMW Racing by Alex Millan, who finished 14^th in Race 2 in 2021; one of six races he competed in.

HOPING FOR A STRONG START

Lennox Lehmann (Freudenberg KTM – Paligo Racing) is the sole KTM representative on the grid and he will be hoping for a strong start to his campaign after making his debut in Barcelona last year. He also won the national German championship in 2020 and 2021, so brings plenty of race and title-winning pedigree to his team. Kawasaki GP Project duo Alessandro Zanca and Kevin Sabatucci, the latter of which is a race winner in WorldSSP300, both return for another WorldSSP300 campaign, as do Indy Offer and Mirko Gennai at Team BrCorse. Expanding to two bikes for 2022, Team#109 Kawasaki will run Australian Harry Khouri alongside Spanish rider Daniel Mogeda; Mogeda raced with the team in the second half of 2021 and quietly impressed.

HOUSEKEEPING…

Victor Rodriguez Nunez (2R Racing) returns to the Championship as a wildcard rider for the Aragon Round and he will be looking for his first classified finish at the Spanish venue. Slovenian rider Gasper Hudovernik (Team Trasimeno) will make his WorldSSP300 debut as a one event rider, having competed in the Yamaha R3 Cup in 2021. With him and Filipino rider Troy Alberto, they’ll make it 30 different countries to have raced in WorldSSP300 in just five years of the Championship’s inception. With the two additional riders, the first event of 2022 will feature a full-capacity grid of 32 riders. There is also one replacement rider on the grid, with Czech rider Petr Svoboda (Accolade Smrz Racing) replacing Jose Luis Perez Gonzalez with the Spaniard ruled out through injury; he will race alongside Yeray Saiz Marquez, who showed promise during his wildcard appearances in 2022.

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