Jerez Test Begins An End Of Season Push For BbKRT

After a triple podium-scoring competitive outing for the the bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team at the most recent competitive round of the FIM Superbike World Championship, the new project will soon undertake one final ‘in-season’ test at Jerez before an intense three-round run-in to the end of the season in late September and mid-October.

After a strong restart to the 2025 WorldSBK campaign at Magny Cours in early September, the BbKRT squad had long planned a two-day test at the Circuito de Jerez - Ángel Nieto, between 16-17 September.

In these important days of track action, all involved will make preparations for the final three rounds of the current championship season, which are scheduled to take place within a four-week period.

The forthcoming Jerez test will initially allow first-team test rider Xavi Fores, then regular WorldSBK competitors Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani, to make more steps in development and fine-tuning of the already podium-capable bimota KB998 Rimini machine. Alex and Axel are thus scheduled to ride on Wednesday, 17 September.

Jerez has already been the venue for two pre-season tests for BbKRT, with all in the team keen to get back to the modern-classic circuit in Andalusia to evaluate how the overall KB998 WorldSBK package has improved since those early experiences.

Over its debut season, the BbKRT effort has delivered a first front-row starting position (for Axel Bassani, at Misano), a first podium finish - and now three more podiums in succession at the French circuit of Magny Cours (just over a week ago, for Alex Lowes).

Now the aim for Lowes is to find an ideal base set-up to take into the final round, and for Bassani to recover the kind of pace that saw him perform so strongly in qualifying at Misano, in his top six placings at some other rounds.

On completion of the Jerez test session, the BbKRT team will next take to the track for the tenth round of the season, which will be held at Motorland Aragon between 26-28 September 2025.

Alex Lowes stated: “The test at Jerez will be important as it’s a good chance for us to try our bike the way it is now compared to the winter tests. Of course, the track conditions will be different from our previous Jerez tests. Our target will be to confirm our new base setting on the bike and, obviously, see if we can find any improvements that could help us for the final three race weekends. It’s always fun to test at Jerez, so I’m excited to get a good day’s work done with the crew.”

Axel Bassani stated: “We have a test in Jerez that will be very important for me. I want to find something new on the bike. We need to make a step because in the past few races we have been always struggling. Alex and his team have shown how fast this bike can go. For sure, he did an incredible job because he has been pushing so hard. He made three podiums in Magny Cours. We need to understand how to improve, because we are missing something. We have some things to try so I hope to use this test to do the correct amount of laps to try the correct things, and we will see what happens.”

Guim Roda, BbKRT Team Manager, stated: “This is a test we planned a long time ago. In this first year of the bimota project, we knew that by the end of the year we could still have a chance to improve the bike. Having the chance to make this test means we will continue working hard to finish as close to the top as possible. The next three rounds, in Motorland, Estoril and Jerez, will be very intensive ones. I am sure we still have areas in which to improve and ‘polish’ the debut season of our project to stay closer to the top positions, fighting for podiums. Jerez will be the last test of the season, but not of the year, because we have already set a Winter Test Plan to continue in 2026 at a higher level than 2025.”