BbKRT Preparing For Another Po...

The first in-season test session for the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team (BbKRT) will take place between 14-15 March 2025, at the always popular Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in southern Portugal.

The all new BbKRT project got off to a flying start in competitive trim during the first round of the season at Phillip Island in Australia, with riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani each securing top ten finishes in all three races.

In late January the exciting bimota KB998 Rimini machine was put through its WorldSBK testing paces at the 4.592m long Algarve circuit - commonly refereed to a Portimao - but challenging weather conditions reduced the available track time for this all-new project.

This forthcoming test in Portugal will therefore have two interlinked functions. One is to further develop the overall package and base settings for the entire season. The second is as an important form of more immediate pre-race preparation, especially given that the second round of the championship will take place at Portimao between 28-30 March.

After the opening round of the year just over two weeks ago - which culminated in those encouraging early results for the whole BbKRT effort - a vast amount of new knowledge was gained by both the riders and all the technical staff.

As well as the talents of Alex and Axel, the Portimao test will also feature valuable feedback from test rider Xavi Fores, who has already contributed to the overall campaign during earlier off-season test sessions.

Alex Lowes, stated: “Firstly, I’m really excited to get back on the bimota KB998 Rimini. It was good to get the first round out the way recently and understand a bit more about where we have to improve. Obviously, it’s a new project and we have a lot of work to do, so let’s hope the weather plays ball and we can get some good dry laps in to explore the WorldSBK-spec KB998 a bit further! Portimao is a different challenge to Phillip Island I am hoping to improve my front end confidence on the bike to be more aggressive under braking. That should allow me to race with the other bikes a bit more easily. This is my main focus for this Portimao test, and to enjoy being back with my Team 22 colleagues.”

Axel Bassani, stated: “We will have two days of testing at Portimao soon. It will be a really important test because soon after we will have a race weekend there. We have to try to find our best race setup. For sure that not be easy as Portimao is a very difficult track, but we have already had one day of testing there and we will not be starting this next test from zero. This is very important because all the tracks will be new for us when we go to race. We will have some new things to try but not a lot of new items. We have to improve in a lot of points, especially on the rear for me. After Phillip Island we realised that the base is not bad because we were really near to the first positions. We know that one of our issues is the speed on the straight, so we have to focus a lot where we can improve and not think too much about that. We will try in some more areas to be near to the first riders.”

Guim Roda, BbKRT Team Manager, stated: “After the opening round in Australia we now come back to Europe to continue the WorldSBK show. Australia was the first experience with the bimota KB998 Rimini in a real race situation, and we saw many areas to improve in. Many things were new in that race weekend for us, yet I think we managed it quite well. Now, in this Portimao Test, we'll try to continue ‘polishing’ the areas that we detected we must improve in. I think we will really need to complete three rounds to define the direction of work for bike development, so let’s continue doing that in the Portimao test and then race weekend. We will see, but be sure that the best is yet to come.”