An event like the premiere of the MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship in Barcelona, could not have been launched anywhere else but in the city itself. Some of the most outstanding riders gathered there to make the start of the Acerbis Catalunya WorldSBK Round official.
Jonathan Rea, Scott Redding, Álvaro Bautista, Loris Baz and Tom Sykes featured the image of the day. The WorldSBK riders inaugurated their commitment agenda with a meeting in the Bunkers del Carmel in Barcelona. The riders immortalized the moment and shared their feelings ahead of the start of the action on the track at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which is scheduled to happen tomorrow.
With more than one hundred riders confirmed for this weekend, there will be several other outstanding players on site. Moreover, some of the local riders will certainly be standing in the spotlight, as there are many of them. For the moment, the world championship track has everything ready and set to give way to road racing, adrenaline and thrill, starting tomorrow.
An international event with a strong local participation
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, is having a double reason to celebrate being host to another world championship. Not only because it is the first time that this motorcycle racing series is visiting the facilities, but also because there will be a large number of local riders on the track during the weekend. Adding the three classes, WorldSBK, WorldSSP and WorldSSP300 there will be a total of twenty Spanish riders.
Starting with the premier class of the event, World Superbike, there are former MotoGP™ rider Álvaro Bautista (Team HRC) and Xavi Forés (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing). Bautista who finished runner-up last season, is currently eighth overall and has achieved interesting results so far, such as the podium finish in Motorland. Forés is currently fourteenth overall. Both will try to set the bar high defending the national participation.
There are even more familiar faces in the World Supersport class, such as Isaac Viñales (Kallio Racing), the best classified Spanish rider in the class, on seventh, or Manuel González (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team), who is currently ninth overall. In addition to Alejandro Ruiz (EMPERADOR Racing Team), there are also two riders who moved-up to the championship from the cradle of Spanish road racing, i.e. the Spanish Superbike Championship (ESBK). Óscar Gutiérrez (ANDOTRANS Team TORRENTÓ) and Guillem Erill (DEZA-ISMABON Racing Team) already put themselves to the test at the Circuit this year at the ESBK event on the Barcelona racetrack in August.
The smallest class of the series, the World Supersport 300, has the largest grid of the weekend. Among the 61 entrants, there are 13 Spanish riders. This figure was supposed to include one more Ana Carrasco, the 2018 Champion. However, Carrasco was injured during a crash while practising and will finally miss the date at the Circuit. But the thrill is guaranteed with riders like Unai Orradre, Álvaro Díaz, Mika Pérez, Íñigo Iglesias, Víctor Rodríguez, José Luís Pérez, Adrián Huertas, Alejandro Carrión, Iker García, Ángel Heredia, Francesc Pérez, Javier Corral and Daniel Mogeda.
The championship has also several Catalans among the team and organisation staff. This is the case at the Kawasaki Racing Team, managed by the competition structure Provec Racing. The team currently holding the World Champion title will be clearly racing at home, as their headquarters are located in Granollers only a couple of hundred meters away from the Circuit.
A cast of world-renowned riders
WorldSBK will also be bringing to the Catalan racetrack some of the best riders of the world who make up the usual grid: five-times World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), former MotoGP™ rider Scott Redding (Ducati Aruba), young Turkish talent Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha) and many other consolidated names such as Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad), Michael Van der Mark (Pata Yamaha), Chaz Davies (Ducati Aruba), Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) or Loris Baz (Ten Kate Yamaha).
Another prestigious name that will be taking part in the Acerbis Catalunya Round will be former MotoGP™ rider Jonas Folguer. The German rider will be back in the international scenario after a sabbatical season with a wildcard entry at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
