News

The 2021 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship may be coming to a close in the next month or so, but the World Supersport 300 Championship has already finished. However, there was good news for the WorldSSP300 Champion Adrian Huertas, as the 18-year-old Spaniard will move up to World Supersport in 2022 with the Dutch team. MTM Kawasaki will continue to compete in WorldSSP300 during the 2022 season but both Huertas and the team will debut in WorldSSP.

Huertas clinched six World Supersport 300 race wins, laying the foundations for his first world title. For MTM Kawasaki, this was the team's second consecutive world title in the class, following on from Jeffrey Buis in 2020. Buis himself will make a World Supersport debut in San Juan for the G.A.P MOTOZOO Racing by Puccetti outfit, as WorldSSP300 stardom continues to move forward through World Championship ranks.

Talking about his deal for 2022, Adrian Huertas commented about the opportunity: “I’m very happy to announce that I will continue with the MTM team and Kawasaki in 2022. We had a very successful season together and I am looking forward to continuing it. It is a new challenge and I want to thank team manager Ludo for this opportunity. We will grow together to World Supersport, and it is very cool that I can make this step to a new class in the WorldSBK paddock. I will continue to work very hard, just like last season. We will go for it with MTM Kawasaki to score the best possible results in 2022!”

Team manager Ludo Van der Veken also gave his thoughts as he leads his team to the next level of World Championship action: "I’m very happy that we can make this step to World Supersport with Adrian and the support of Kawasaki. Adrian made huge progress with us last season, which resulted in winning the WorldSSP300 title. He is a fighter at the track, but it’s also a pleasure to work with him. I expect that he will be a fast rider as well on the Kawasaki ZX-6R in World Supersport in the near future. I'm really looking forward to making this step to the bigger class together. The team's focus will also stay in with World Supersport 300, where we want to continue our successes!”

There’s been plenty of successful World Supersport 300 riders graduate to World Supersport before, with Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha ParkinGO Team) being a shining example of how to make a strong showing, having been competitive on Kawasaki machinery before switching to Yamaha in his second season, where he became a winner. Luca Bernardi (CM Racing) also had prior top five finished in WorldSSP300 and after an impressive rookie World Supersport campaign, moves to WorldSBK in 2022 with the Barni Racing Team. In 2020, Andy Verdoïa became the youngest race winner in World Supersport history having been a podium man in WorldSSP300, whilst Galang Hendra Pratama (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) has been a consistent points-scorer after wins in WorldSSP300.

Follow all of the progress of Huertas in 2022 and the remainder of the 2021 World Superbike season with the WorldSBK VideoPass!