Danilo‘ Petrux’ Petrucci
BACK TO THE RACING Much as there’ s been, until now, a sense of stability with Phillip Island as the home of WorldSBK in Australia, there’ s also been a sense of stability in terms of rider and team dispositions in the series over the last few years. Toprak and Michael Van der Mark at ROKIT BMW, Bulega and Bautista at Aruba. it Ducati, Rea and Locatelli at PATA Maxis Yamaha, Vierge and Lecuona at Honda HRC. And beyond that, Gerloff and Alex Lowes maintaining a relationship with Kawasaki albeit under the Bimota flag for Lowes. Even in the non-factory ranks, Gardner at GRT Yamaha, Petrucci at Barni and The Maniac at GoEleven meant season 2025 had more than a little déjà vu about it, a sense that was reinforced as it was clear from the outset that the title was going to go to either Toprak, the eventual victor, or Bulega who finished second in the championship. They were that far ahead of the pack.
That’ s not say the outcomes on any given race weekend were inevitable, there were some thumping battles in every race at every round, especially if you looked beyond Razgatlioglu and Bulega but maybe, just maybe, shaking the tree would make season 2026 a very different prospect. To some extent, that wish was granted and the tree has been shaken.
BMW Three times champion Toprak has left WorldSBK to flex his immense skills in MotoGP on the new V4 Yamaha. Toprak’ s seat at BMW now belongs to Danilo‘ Petrux’ Petrucci who has, in recent years, performed well on the Barni Spark Ducati V4R. It’ s all change at BMW as Michael Van der Mark has relinquished his seat in WorldSBK to join BMW in the World Endurance Championship( WEC). His WorldSBK seat is taken by MotoGP refugee Miguel Oliveira who is a real talent despite a lean few years in MotoGP and hopefully a switch
38 KIWI RIDER