BbKRT completes Pre-Season Tes...

The highly anticipated entry of the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team (BbKRT) into the 2025 WorldSBK Championship is just days away, following the conclusion of the official two-day test session at Phillip Island, Australia.

BbKRT riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani made significant progress in finding their final race setups on the new bimota KB998 Rimini during the four individual track sessions held between February 17 and 18.

The first day was dry, sunny, and virtually windless from start to finish, but on the second day, a dry morning session was followed by a wet afternoon. Only the final minutes of the last session allowed the track to dry enough for some meaningful last-minute testing, so both bimota riders seized that opportunity with their technical teams.

With all possible pre-season preparations completed, Alex finished the official DWO Phillip Island test with the seventh-best overall time, while Axel was the eighth fastest rider of all.

The 2025 WorldSBK Championship will have its inaugural round at Phillip Island from February 21 to 23.

Phillip Island is the traditional season opener for WorldSBK, featuring a 4.445 km circuit located on a picturesque island off the southern coast of Victoria. It is a very popular track in WorldSBK, known for its left-hand-biased layout and several long high-speed corners that place particular stress on the left side of the tires.

There will be three races in the opening round, two of them spanning 20 laps—one on Saturday and another on Sunday. However, both will feature mandatory pit stops for tire changes mid-race. There will also be a ten-lap "Tissot Superpole Race" on Sunday.

Each long WorldSBK race is scheduled to start at 4:00 p.m. local time, with the sprint race taking place at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 23. The CET time in Europe is 10 hours behind the local time in Australia.

Alex Lowes (BbKRT Rider):

“The test went well. We had some things to try in the afternoon session, but we only managed a few laps at the end. We made quite a significant change, which gave us some direction for the weekend. The test was positive, I enjoyed it, and we didn’t have any issues. I’m looking forward to the first race with the bimota KB998 Rimini. The bike performed well on used tires, but I’m ready for the tire changes in the long races. We practiced wheel changes, and it’s the same for everyone. I like the sprint races, and actually, we’re going to have ‘five’ races similar to the Superpole Race, with a couple of pit stops mid-race. We just need to have a good qualifying session and then go for it in the races. I feel good and am ready to start this new adventure.”

Axel Bassani (BbKRT Rider):

“This test was quite good, and we did some laps with different types of tires. We tried to understand them, but the conditions kept changing today, so it wasn’t easy. We made some changes to the bike because my feeling compared to the tests in Jerez and Portimao was quite different. I think we found a good base for the races. I was a bit disappointed in the last afternoon session since the weather wasn’t great. We had to wait until the last eight minutes and only did three laps. I tried to push but not too hard because the track wasn’t very clean after the rain. These two test days are over, and now we can relax a bit before the race weekend. Tests are tests, and races are races, so we’ll see what happens. It’s always different, so we’ll see.”

Pere Riba (Crew Chief for Alex Lowes):

“The test was calm. One of the goals was to work patiently to try and understand the things we’ve been working on. This was especially important because every year when we arrive in Australia, everyone is very nervous. We saw that there were many crashes here, so we needed to be careful. We were very focused, and Alex was really, really good. We’re learning. We haven’t had much time with the bikes because it was raining intermittently during some previous tests. We followed our testing plan, tried a couple of important elements to learn more, and we’ll start the race weekend with some of the key components. I’m quite happy, and I think Alex is understanding the bike.”

Marcel Duinker (Crew Chief for Axel Bassani):

“I am very satisfied with the test, which was the last trial before the inaugural race weekend. We adapted the bike, mainly this morning in dry conditions. Yesterday we understood our limitations, so we adjusted the bike to the track characteristics and rear tires. Axel was very consistent with the tires beyond race distance and kept improving. We made the right step this morning. This afternoon was about enjoying the track, although the weather hindered us a bit. We practiced wheel changes, both yesterday and on the final day. We’ve done it many times in the past, but it was good to practice a bit. We made the most of the time we had during these two days of testing and are where we need to be.”