Ex-MotoGP ace Bradley Smith joins BSB-supporting British GP2 Championship

Ex-MotoGP rider Bradley Smith will make a racing appearance on the British stage at Snetterton with a wildcard in the BSSP-aligned British GP2 series

Bradley Smith - Aprilia MotoGP

Bradley Smith is set to make his debut on the British Superbike Championship racing programme with a wild-card outing in the prototype-based British GP2 Championship support series.

One of the UK’s highest-profile motorcycle racers on the international stage, Smith with line-up on the Moto2 grid - which in turn runs within the British Supersport Championship races - with Moto Corsa, riding the Spirit chassis, at Snetterton.

His appearances comes as part of a deal that will see Spirit supply its bikes to his Project 109 team, which he formed at the beginning of the year to develop and coach new riding talent alongside another ex-MotoGP rider, Claudio Corti. 

Currently competing in the Espana Supersport 300- Championship (ESSP 300), Project 109 will expand into the CEV Moto2 Series, though it isn’t clear if Smith plans to ride there.

In the meantime, Smith will compete on UK soil for the first time since the 2017 British MotoGP at Silverstone (2018 - washed out, 2019 - no ride, 2020 - cancelled).

Smith has spent much of the last two decades plying his trade on the international stage where he’d go on to become a 125GP runner-up in 2015, score podiums in Moto2 and emerge as one of the most consistent and dependable riders in MotoGP.

Though his headline highlights were limited to two podiums between 2013 and 2020, he finished inside the overall top ten on three occasions with the Tech 3 Yamaha team, peaking with sixth in 2015.

After two tough seasons with the new KTM Factory Racing project in 2017 and 2018, Smith made a surprise return to full-time competition in 2020 as a replacement for the suspended Andrea Iannone at Aprilia. However, he’d lose that seat to Lorenzo Savadori for 2021.