WSBK | Silly Season | 2026

You must have missed the discussions when they announced his move to Kawasaki. People were acting like he was moving to JRP's team.

Toprak.

 

I miss a lot. I just remember the announcement that he was going there with the factory shit and I guess I didn't pay attention to a lot of the BBS chatter.

Good name. :up:

 

You thought that was on purpose?

 

It was an auto correct?

You should have just leaned into it. "I meant to do that" type of shit.

 

I might have, if it was clever or funny.

 

You do sneak some great stuff out that might fly under the radar of the masses.

 

Tarran Mackenzie and Petronas Honda have split

 

They probably ran out of replacement parts.

 

Shooting from the hip, I would think it would be counter-productive not to. Pirelli was/is constantly working to improve the production tires via their involvement in WSBK and were always very transparent in media releases what tires the racers were on (production or development). The goal of the development tires was always to make a better production tire. That's how we got the SCX (which is a tire we're using quite a bit at the club level).

It never fails to land with me a certain way when watching the WSBK broadcasts and they refer to the SC0 as the "hard" option.

 

I am bummed. I feel like Kaw has completely abandoned that end of the garage. No aero or anything. GG is too great and frankly American to be up against the crap bike. With Toprak gone and the thought of watching GG struggle I am may not renew my WSBK streaming. Hope I am wrong.

 

GG resigning with Pucetti seems to me like he is in the "collect a pay cheque here for one more year" from sponsors and endorsements mainly I guess, then tuck tail home.

Next year will suck for sure with no Toprak, possibly no Bautista, possibly no Iannone, GG on a single rider team that has a 7 year old bike and a shoestring budget, and seemingly no big talents entering the mix other than maybe a couple MotoGP castaways like Olivera/Miller/Fernandez.

 

I'm hoping Stefano Manzi moves up and there's some other opportunities. Ducati could bring Jaume Masia up to superbike or he could replace one of the satellite Duc riders. The WSS field is pretty competitive and talent-rich.

 

Aron Canet rumored to be Toprak's replacement

 

Admittedly WSBK 2026 does look bleak at the moment with GG back in green and a likely bulega runaway. BUT there’s still a lot of contracts to shake out and plenty of riders from supersport and the GP paddock that could very quickly change that. So I’m not ready to cancel my subscription just yet…

 

Looks like the Moto2 Gangbanger is taking Topraks seat - that'll add some intrigue to the season if he comes to grips with a production bike.

 

Redding retreating to BSB could be permanent. His WSBK team is broke anyway.

 

Also saw some post about his latest leather sponsor dropping him/ he dropping the sponsor. Number 2 or 3 of the years.

 

I thought he wasn’t wearing “leathers”?

 

He dropped them.

 

Sam Lowes confirmed for 2026 & 2027 on Elf Marc VDS