Bimota returns to WorldSBK grid By Ben Purvis
Bimota - now safely under the wing of Kawasaki and on firm financial footing for perhaps the first time in its long history - is to make a surprise return to top level racing in 2025 as it replaces Kawasaki's works outfit on the WSBK grid.
To achieve that goal, the company needs to launch and start to manufacturer a brand new 1,000 cc road-going Superbike, which will be powered by Kawasaki's ZX-10RR engine and launched in the second half of 2024.
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| KRT Team Manager Guim Roda |
Kawasaki might have enjoyed plenty of success in WSBK in recent years, but Bimota's ties to the series date back to the dawn of the championship in 1988, when Davide Tardozzi came oh so close to claiming the first WSB title on his works Bimota YB4.
He won more races than any other rider that year, but was just beaten to the title by Honda-mounted Fred Merkel. Bimota continued in WSBK until 1992 and returned in 2000 to gain a remarkable race win at Phillip Island with Anthony Gobert on the Suzuki-powered SB8K - a machine that was utterly outclassed by rivals in a season that, for Bimota, was cut short by bankruptcy. A revived Bimota tried again in WSBK in 2014 with the BMW-engined BB3, but was disqualified for failing to meet minimum production requirements.
They won't have those sorts of problems this time, with Kawasaki providing the engines, the financial muscle and the race team itself. To comply with the rules, Bimota needs to manufacture a road-going Superbike around the ZX-10RR's engine, potentially to be called the KB5, and to manufacture a minimum of 125 examples by the time of the FIM's homologation inspection at the start of the next race season, rising to 250 by the end of next year, with at least 250 more to be made in 2026.
Those numbers are big for Bimota, but tiny in Kawasaki's eyes, and perhaps reflect the direction of the market for road-going Superbikes. While European brands like Ducati and BMW are enjoying sales success with the Panigale V4 and M1000RR, Japanese companies have been struggling to find customers for their 1,000 cc Superbikes in recent years.
Suzuki has already withdrawn the GSX-R1000 from European markets and is doing the same in Japan at the end of this year, and Yamaha is believed to have decided not to upgrade the YZF-R1 to Euro 5+ emissions rules that are required in Europe from the start of 2025.
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| Bimota KB4 |
By outsourcing its Superbike responsibilities to Bimota, Kawasaki can get the cachet and exclusive appeal of a European brand to stay on the Superbike scene without having to update its own ZX-10RR. A Bimota will also be able to command higher prices than a Kawasaki-branded Superbike, making it easier for the project to bank a profit, although it will have to abide by the € 44,000 price cap for machines homologated to run in WSBK.
KRT Team Manager, Guim Roda, said: "In the past 13 years, myself and all of those at the KRT workshop in Granollers have dedicated ourselves wholeheartedly to the Kawasaki Superbike project and garnered seven WorldSBK rider titles in that time, plus numerous team and manufacturer awards.
"Now - after Kawasaki competed for nearly four decades in the Superbike championship - we are proud to be part of a new era, forming the infrastructure of the new Bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team. For sure we will spare some time to reflect on and celebrate the heritage of Kawasaki in Superbike racing, but we are also extremely excited to be a core component of this new Bimota and Kawasaki joint venture.
"This is an evolution for Kawasaki's approach to the top level of production racing and we are honoured to play our role in this new project. I am confident we have the technology and human resources necessary to succeed and it will be a fresh, energising experience fielding an impressive two rider team in the 2025 Motul FIM WorldSBK Championship."
