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Pedercini Racing are enjoying a good season of points scoring finishes in 2016, including a top 5 result at Sepang International Circuit in Race 2 for replacement rider Anthony West. West, who has been drafted in on a race-by-race basis to ride in place of injured Sylvain Barrier after the Frenchman broke his hand at MotorLand Aragón in Race 2, has been a consistent scorer on the Pedercini ZX-10R. Qatari rider Saeed Al Sulaiti, a rookie at world level and in WorldSBK, also recently scored the first ever points for his country in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship as he gets to grips with a year of new rivals and new tracks. Lucio Pedercini talked to WorldSBK.com at Laguna Seca ahead of the summer break, to find out his thoughts on his team’s season so far, and what could be on the horizon.

“Barrier started the season with us and we have a contract with him,” clarifies Pedercini of Frenchman Barrier, who has not yet returned from injury. “Unfortunately he crashed in Race 2 in Aragón and broke his hand. The second and fourth fingers are now ok but the third is still fractured. This is not good and he can’t ride at the moment because the doctor says it’s impossible to ride. He can test but the problem is the fracture is still open so it’s not so good for him. I hope he should be back in Germany, after 3 months. It’s not good for him because it’s the right hand and he has no power, but I hope he comes back in Germany.”

Disappointment on one side of the garage with the difficult injury, but Pedercini is pleased with Barrier’s teammate – Saeed Al Sulaiti – as the Qatari rider continues to move forward.

“I’m very happy with him,” says the team owner of the WorldSBK rookie. “He’s such a nice guy. We knew that he didn’t know any of the tracks in WorldSBK and for sure it’s not easy when you only have an hour or two on Friday and then the race immediately on Saturday…but I hope we can continue with him next year, to be able to use the information we’ve got this year for next season, and he wants to continue too.”

As well as the two permanent riders with which the team began the season, replacement rider Anthony West has proved a stellar stand-in for the Italian team after taking over Barrier’s bike since the Fassi Malaysian Round at Sepang. West came ninth in his first race on the bike, and followed it up with a stunning wet weather ride the day after in Race 2 to come home in the top 5.

“It’s very good with Anthony,” says Pedercini. “He’s a very good guy and a very good rider, and everyone knows he is very fast in the wet. But I was more impressed on the Saturday in Malaysia in the dry when he finished ninth. He’s a good rider and for us it’s very good. He arrived to replace Sylvain and at the moment he’s done a very good job. The agreement with Anthony is that he replaces Sylvain race by race, so we’ll see – if Sylvain comes back in Germany we’ll continue with him, otherwise we’ll continue with Anthony. And maybe we’ll see also for the future - for next year.”

Speaking of next year, the final four Rounds of the season are soon on the horizon, so what have the team got planned for 2017?

“We will continue with Kawasaki and like I said, we want to continue with Saeed. So other than that, we’ll see. Our relationship with Kawasaki is very good – since 2008 – and they help us a lot. Our bike is not so far away…this year it’s the 2016 model so for themselves as well they work a lot to improve the bike. So we are close but I think for next year we will be even closer. When we started the year it was to have two years with Sylvain, but the relationship with Anthony is very good. And it depends on Sylvain’s physical condition, too.”

With the only thing sure being that the team will continue to field two riders in 2017, the summer break now sees WorldSBK take some time off before returning to competition at the Pirelli German Round at Eurospeedway Lausitz in September.