There will be a new face on the 2023 FIM Supersport World Championship grid as Yuta Okaya makes the step from WorldSSP300 for 2023 with Prodina Racing WorldSSP for his rookie campaign in the Championship. The Japanese rider has been a consistent front runner in WorldSSP300 and a two-time race winner but will face a new challenge for 2023 as he makes the step up for his first campaign in World Supersport next season.

Okaya made his WorldSSP300 debut in 2019 and spent four years competing in the Championship, improving his final Championship position in all but his fourth season. His first win came in his second season, in 2020, at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with a stunning last-corner pass as he led home an historic MTM Kawasaki 1-2-3-4. He took two podiums in 2020, including his famous win which was the first for a Japanese rider in the Championship.

Although he was winless in 2021, he moved up from tenth in the Championship to fifth at the end of the 2021 season and he added three more podiums to his name, taking three third-place finishes at Aragon, Jerez and Portimao. Remaining with MTM Kawasaki for 2022, Okaya claimed his second win, again in Barcelona, with another last-corner move. Despite the win and for podiums, more than his previous seasons, he took seventh in the Championship standings.

Reacting to his move to WorldSSP, Okaya said: "I’m very happy to join the Prodina Racing Team and I am excited to move up to a higher category to ride the Kawasaki ZX-6R. I’ve scored some strong results in the WorldSSP300 class and so it’s the right time to take that next step. In Japan I train with a 600 and this year I won the Superstock 1000 class riding a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR in the Suzuka 8 Hours. So I have some experience of the bigger bikes. I’m honoured and pleased to continue to be part of the Kawasaki family and I’m grateful for their support.”

Riccardo Drisaldi, Team Manager, added: “We’re pleased and proud to welcome Yuta to our team and consider him to be a young rider with great potential, ready to move up a category. I’m sure that, with his talent and determination, Okaya will do very well. We’re working hard to be competitive, thanks also to the support of Kawasaki, and we want to continue with our mission to develop young champions of the future.”

Okaya will follow in the footsteps of recent WorldSSP300 graduates who have stepped in to WorldSSP. Adrian Huertas stepped up with MTM Kawasaki for 2022, where him and Okaya were teammates, as well as Jeffrey Buis with Motozoo Racing by Puccetti. Tom Booth-Amos was another who stepped up with Kawasaki machinery, with the Prodina Racing WorldSSP squad, while Bahattin Sofuoglu was with MV Agusta Reparto Corse. Prior to that, Manuel Gonzalez stepped into WorldSSP after his 2019 WorldSSP300 title success, finishing seventh and third in his two seasons before departing for Moto2™ this year.

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