British Superbike racer Rory Skinner will step up to the Moto2 World Championship in 2023 with the American Racing Team, it has been announced.
Skinner will part ways with the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki team with whom he has raced in 2022 BSB to join the American Racing team from next season. The deal was confirmed last night during practice for the Australian Grand Prix.
Skinner’s move to the World Championship is one that he has been hoping to make throughout his career, but his route has been unconventional due to funding and opportunities not falling his way despite showing promise in the pre-Grand Prix ‘Road to MotoGP’ classes.
The original plan of the American Racing squad for 2023 is supposed to have been to keep their 2022 line-up of Cameron Beaubier and Sean Dylan Kelly. However, citing a lack of opportunities to progress to MotoGP and homesickness, Beaubier decided he would move back to the MotoAmerica championship for next year, where he won six Superbike class titles before moving to Moto2 in 2021.
Beaubier’s departure opened the door for Skinner, who is managed by John Hopkins - American Racing’s Racing Director.
Skinner has already made his Moto2 World Championship debut earlier this season, when he finished 21st in the British Grand Prix, just ahead of Sean Dylan Kelly, who will be his teammate in 2023.
At the next race, in Austria, Skinner was 21st again, just 0.2 seconds behind Moto2 veteran Simone Corsi.
In his second full season of British Superbikes, Skinner qualified for the Showdown in 2022. Having been injured at the first round of the Showdown in Oulton Park, he is currently last of the eight Showdown contenders in the riders’ standings, 154 points behind championship leader Bradley Ray.
In a statement released on Motogp.com, Rory Skinner said: “I’m delighted to be joining American Racing for the next two seasons. Racing in the Grand Prix paddock is every rider's dream, and opportunities like these don’t come along often, especially for British riders.
"American Racing feels like the perfect team to make my full-time Moto2 debut with. Eitan [Butbul, American Racing team owner] and John [Hopkins] have worked with me for the past two seasons and right from the beginning, they knew where I wanted to be and have been true to their promise in supporting me in my ambitions.
“We’ve done two wildcards earlier this year, which confirmed that this is where I want to be, even though I am under no illusions as to just how competitive Moto2 is. I will be doing everything I can to repay the faith they’ve shown in me, and I also want to thank all the people who have supported me in the past four seasons in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship paddock.
“From my dad running me on a private Kawasaki in British Supersport to Robin and Doug for giving me the chance at Appleyard Macadam Racing, and of course my current FS-3 Racing team, I am very lucky to have worked with some amazing people who have helped me develop as both a person and a rider in what is a high-level championship."
John Hopkins added: “We’re really excited to be bringing Rory on board. He is an exceptional talent which we’ve known from the beginning of working with him.
“It’s very difficult these days to get people to see the talent of riders outside of the Grand Prix paddock, which is the main reason for the wildcards he did with the team earlier this year. He showed how exceptional he is with his speed having never been on the Moto2 bike before.
"It’s a strange set of circumstances of how it’s happened in that we were always wanting to get him a Moto2 ride somewhere in the series but with Cam making the choice to leave the championship, it’s opened up a spot here. So we’re really excited to bring him on board, we know it’ll be a difficult start but we’re all up for the challenge.
“Rory’s mental approach is what proves to me that he will be competitive and with that, we’ll be ensuring that he has every tool to be able to carry that through.
Hopkins also emphasised how having Skinner and Kelly in the team next season is the realisation of what he, Eitan Butbul and Avner Kass (co-team owner with Butbul) wanted to build with American Racing, which is a platform for riders who might not otherwise have had a chance of racing in Grand Prix to go to the world stage and showcase their abilities.
Hopkins said: “Now that we have two riders who we personally manage and have done so for a few years riding for the team next year in Sean and Rory, perfectly shows that we put our words into action.
“These are riders that otherwise would likely not have had opportunities in Moto2, given the current circumstances within the sport & rider market. We’re really proud of having built this system and we’re looking forward to continue showing that you can bring riders from other championships onto the world stage, make them competitive and help them reach their dreams – not only on the team’s side but the management side, too.”
Skinner will complete his second and final BSB season this weekend at Brands Hatch.
Source: MotoGP.com; images courtesy of Gold and Goose.
