Kiwi Rider February Vol.1 2023 | Page 36

WSBK , joining Puccetti Racing Kawasaki after a year in BSB . Sykes can be counted on to give everything he ’ s got when he ’ s on track and if he can convert some of his spectacular qualifying performances into race performance , he ’ ll be mixing it with the best . 2022 World Supersport champion Dominique Aegerter steps up to Superbikes with GRT Yamaha and it will be interesting to see if he ’ s able to make the transition to the big bikes as smoothly as Andrea Locatelli did when he made the same move from Ten Kate Yamaha Supersports to factory Yamaha Superbike .
PETRUCCI AND GARDNER ENTER THE FRAY After a year in MotoAmerica , where he finished second in the championship , ex-MotoGP star Danilo Petrucci is joining the WorldSBK circus with satellite Barni Racing team who will be looking to recover from a few lean years and recreate the results they achieved back when Rinaldi was their rider . Also joining from outside the series is Remy Gardner , 2021 Moto2 champion and son of ex-World 500cc champion Wayne Gardner , who joins Aegerter at GRT Yamaha after an unforgiving and inconsistent season with KTM in MotoGP in 2022 . WorldSBK has delivered some fascinating battles in the last few seasons , with Baustista largely in control of the series from the outset in 2022 but Rea , Razgatlioglu and their respective teams will have worked on the deficit in the off-season and we should see even more close battles throughout the season to come .
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