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Anthony West’s World Superbike debut could not have been much more striking than Sepang this weekend, as the former Grand Prix winner made his debut in the WorldSBK premier class and collected a pair of top ten results, showing his pace in both dry and wet conditions.

Following a ninth place finish on Saturday, the Australian – competing in his eighth different motorcycle racing World Championship category – had the challenge of riding the Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R in the wet for the first time, stunningly finishing inside the top five of Race 2 on Sunday afternoon. West is known for his wet weather prowess and Sepang proved no different.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” West commented. “I had never raced in World Superbike before, never ridden this bike before and never worked with this team before! It’s been a challenging weekend but I have been facing a lot of challenges this year, jumping on every sort of bike and racing with every sort of team I could get myself into. I would like to stay here in World Superbike, I had a lot of fun riding here this weekend; I think the result was good enough?”

West’s top 5 was the best result for Pedercini in WorldSBK as he stands in for injured Sylvain Barrier.

“It was hard work, not knowing the bike, and the bike was not setup very well. I just tried to stay on it, get points and do the best I could with it. I’ll be at Donington; I would like to continue with this team but we still need to talk about that…I think today should help with the discussion!”

West is planning to wildcard the Round in WorldSSP if not riding for Pedercini, as the paddock returns west to Europe for Donington Park.