We’ve always said Visordown is ahead of the curve but this was a close run thing with Ducati…
Around 30mins after we posted an article speculating the official factory Aruba.it Ducati team would enter the WorldSSP Championship in 2022, the manufacturer went ahead and confirmed exactly that. Call us Mystic Meg!
In the article - which you can read here - we focused on the prospect of the team entering the intermediate category with Oli Bayliss, son of three-time WorldSBK Troy Bayliss.
For now, the Australian remains a ‘maybe’ (we’re standing by it) but Ducati has verified the second rider we mentioned in the piece, with Nicolo Bulega certain to ride with the Italian marque next year.
The Italian - a former member of the VR46 Racing Academy - has plied his trade in GP, competing most recently in the Moto2 World Championship. He has a best finish of seventh place from three seasons of competition.
Significantly, this is the formal confirmation that Ducati will broaden its scope in WorldSBK with an entry into the 2022 WorldSSP Championship.
Made possible by an agreement between FIM and Dorna to change the regulations by widening the engine size band right up to 960cc, the move has been done to ensure eligibility of the 959cc Ducati Panigale V2.
The move is also expected to see Triumph enters its hybrid 765cc Street Triple/Daytona bike it is racing in the British Supersport Championship, while MV Agusta is set to revert to the new F3 800 RR it unveiled yesterday.
The current class is dominated by the Yamaha R6 but the Supersport class has suffered from a lack of variety, the result of dwindling roadgoing sales that have seen models like the Suzuki GSX-R600, Triumph Daytona 675 and Honda CBR600RR pulled from European price lists.
Indeed, even the Yamaha R6 has been reduced to a track only RACE model, though there is speculation the rumoured incoming Yamahas R9 will fill this void as its WorldSSP entry. Kawasaki, meanwhile, could develop a track-only ZX-6RR (like it has with the ZX-6R) or adopt an entirely new model.
Ducati’s move into WorldSSP marks the first time the firm has had representation in the intermediate class since 2006 when Gianluca Nannelli started a handful of races on a privateer Ducati 749R.
However, you have to go back to 2004 when the Ducati Breil team represented the manufacturer with a degree of factory backing.
