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Luca Scassa’s objective for 2016 is to maintain the twin job he held at Ducati this year, working as test rider for the Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team while serving as a ‘link’ between the race team and title sponsor Aruba. With 2015 having proven to be a year of some frustration, including a heavy crash resulting in injuries at Misano which itself came after two sizeable accidents the year before, 32-year-old Scassa takes time out to catch up with WorldSBK.com.

“I ended up being out of action and on the sidelines for half of the year,” Scassa recalls. “I was going to be participating in the Italian Round at Imola, but I was still waiting for screws to be removed from my body after the crash I had at Mugello in MotoGP (in 2013). Had I raced and crashed again, that would have caused some real complications, so I decided it was best not to do it at Imola. I then tried to race as a wildcard at Misano in June, but I had another pretty bad crash, at Turn 3. Physically I was not in a good way, as just a month earlier I had discovered that I had some torn cartilage which stopped me from training. For this reason my muscles were not as toned, so when I fell again it actually hurt me quite a lot.”

However, 2015 was not all bad news for the Scassa. He managed to compete in the French Round as substitute for the injured Davide Giugliano, qualifying on the second row of the grid in difficult conditions and picking up a top ten finish in Race 2. However, the season has changed his perspectives in some ways.

“I’m happy as a rider,” he continues. “I know what a difference it makes to have a good bike, as I experienced on the Yamaha in 2011 (three wins, four podium finishes and two pole positions to finish fifth overall in World Supersport). 2015 been a year of training in other areas, such as management, marketing and sponsor relations. It has taught me how to how to behave as a professional, realising there are other people around and not just yourself. I understand how important it is to keep the group together – that really counts a lot towards extracting the maximum from something.”

Scassa now looks forward to taking on his responsibilities for 2016.

“I could have tried to look around for a private team to race with full-time, but I’ve decided against it,” he reveals. “I talked to the Aruba team and to Ducati and I intend to do the same as I have done this year: work on the development of the bike as a test rider, as Michele Pirro does for Ducati in MotoGP…or what Casey Stoner is going to be doing, but I’m not going to compare myself with him [laughs]! I will probably also do some wildcard outings at the Italian rounds of Imola and Misano, plus Magny-Cours because the French market is the second most important for Aruba (Italian internet hosting and domain company, as well as title sponsor to the Ducati WorldSBK team) and so they want to make sure the team is present there with three bikes on the grid.”

Luca Scassa was born in Arezzo, Italy on 23 August 1983. His professional motorcycling career began with an FIM CEV Supersport race in 2003, before clinching CIV titles in his native Italy: the Superstock class in 2006 and Superbike in 2008. His WorldSBK debut came at the end of 2008, ahead of full seasons in 2009 and 2010. Following his aforementioned successful World Supersport year in 2011, there was a British Superbike campaign in 2012. In 2013, he picked up a single podium finish in World Supersport and rode in five MotoGP races to cover for the injured Karel Abraham, but himself was ruled out of action after a crash at Mugello. In 2014, he competed in six WorldSBK races on an EVO Kawasaki with Team Pedercini ahead of his move to Aruba Ducati for the most recent 2015 campaign.