Kiefer Racing, one of the first teams to succeed in winning the Moto2 World Championship will swap to the 2020 WorldSSP Championship in the latest high-profile switch from the GP class.
The German outfit is one of the few teams that can claim to have defeated six-time MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez after Stefan Bradl – who now helps develop the Repsol Honda campaigned by Spaniard - beat him to the 2011 Moto2 World Championship title.
However, Kiefer Racing’s fortunes have dwindled on the grand prix stage over the last few seasons, not least in 2019 when its sole rider Lukas Tulovic troubled the points just once as one of a few riders to struggle on uncompetitive customer KTM machinery.
As such, Kiefer Racing will revive its motorsport endeavour in WorldSSP with a new two-rider Yamaha effort, once more with Tulovic and also Austrian racer Thomas Gradinger, who notched up his maiden podium in the series this season.
"I am so pleased to join Kiefer Racing and proud that such a prestigious team has chosen me,” Gradinger said “They won two World Titles, and I am sure that together we can achieve great success in WorldSSP too!
I believe they have all the prerequisites to aim for a World Title in World Supersport. I have some experience in this championship, and that can help us achieve great results straight away. I am really confident ahead of 2020, and I’m looking forward to starting next season.”
Kiefer Racing bolsters impressive 2020 WorldSSP line-up
It’s been an interesting few weeks for WorldSBK’s intermediate class with numerous GP riders – Andrea Locatelli, Philip Oettl, Can Oncu and Steven Odendaal – making the switch for the 2020 WorldSSP season.
Now a world championship winning team is following suit in Kiefer Racing, an outfit that has previously indicated its intentions to compete in the Superbike class too.
They will no doubt look to follow in the successful footsteps of other Moto2-turned-WorldSSP winners, including Jules Cluzel, Randy Krummenacher and Isaac Vinales.
It comes as two-time WorldSBK Champion James Toseland also throws his hat into the ring as the team manager for WRP Wepol Racing, which will be campaigned by Danny Webb.
