Anthony West secures BSB ride

ANTHONY WEST has finally secured a seat for the 2012 season after signing with Supersonic Racing to ride a BMW in the British Superbike championship.

After losing his MotoGP ride due to a lack of funding and then missing out on a place with Swan Yamaha as the team opted for Noriyuki Haga instead, West has turned his luck around to become the latest international rider to join the 2012 BSB grid.

The Australian will join Swiss rider Patric Muff in the Supersonic Racing team, who are switching from World Superbikes to the British series, riding on BMW S1000RRs.

West said: "It has been a difficult couple of weeks for me; I obviously lost the ride in MotoGP and before then I hadn't looked outside of that paddock.

"I looked at what John (Hopkins) had done by racing in BSB last year and I thought it could be a good move for me. I don't know a lot of the tracks, but I have experience of learning fast from the different championships I have raced in before.

"It will also be a new experience riding the BMW Superbike so it is exciting for me; the competition this year looks like it will be the best it has ever been in BSB so it will be a new challenge. My fans have been a great support to me and it was also their reaction of wanting to see me race in BSB that pushed me to continue my racing career."

The team will be using factory specification BMW S1000RRs supplied by BMW Motorrad Italia adapted for the new BSB technical regulations.

Click here for the 2012 British Superbikes calendar