SBK – Ten Kate back… with Yamaha!

Bruno Gomes

February 28, 2019

Photo credits: WorldSBK

After the announcement that they would not continue with their racing team, following Honda moving to the new Moriwaki Althea team, the historic Dutch Ten Kate team is planning a shock return to the World Superbike paddock, with reports saying the Ten Kate brothers will now race Yamaha bikes.

According to those same reports, Dorna wants Ten Kate back on the World Superbike paddock, and Dorna themselves have spoken with Yamaha Racing in favor of the Dutch team, who, since the end of their race team last season, are now solely dedicated to the commercial side of their business in Holland.

At first, Yamaha Racing was reluctant in building another YZF-R1 for the World Superbike championship, a competition where they already have four bikes running, with the PATA Yamaha WorldSBK team and the GRT Yamaha team, with both teams getting official support from the Japanese manufacturer. A fifth R1 would place Yamaha Racing in big stress, an stretch their resources to the max, but Dorna was able to convince Yamaha Racing how important the link with Ten Kate will be.

Of course, Ten Kate still needs to find the budget to compete the whole season, but things are looking good for them, and for the fans, that didn’t understand how such an important and relevant team would leave the World Superbike championship just because Honda decided to link themselves with another team.

If everything goes to plan, the Ten Kate Yamaha team should be on track at the third round of the season in Motorland Aragon, the first European race of the year, but there are those who say that Yamaha Racing won’t be able to build and deliver the YZF-R1 in time for that race, so the team might need to wait until their home race in Assen to be back racing full time.

As for the chosen rider, and since they will only get one bike running, Dorna wants Ten Kate to go for Loris Baz. The Frenchman has the experience racing in World Superbike and MotoGP, and with the championship passing by Magny-Cours, they really want to have a French rider on the track. But Italian media are now saying that Lorenzo Savadori, who used to race for Aprilia before the Noale factory pulled out of World Superbike at the end of last season, is another interesting rider for the Ten Kate Yamaha team.

We will need to wait a few more weeks to find out if all this will be a reality or if Ten Kate is definitely out of the World Superbike championship.