The Motozoo Racing by Puccetti will have an all-new line-up in 2022 after signing Ben Currie and Jeffrey Buis for the upcoming season. Currie has plenty of experience with Supersport machinery from his time competing in the British championship while Buis’ experience is limited to two rounds at the end of the 2021 campaign with the same team in the FIM Supersport World Championship.

Both got to test the Kawasaki ZX-6R they will use in WorldSSP for the upcoming season at a two-day test at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto, giving both riders the chance to discuss how they are making changes and what they need to change and adapt to be successful in the category. With Currie coming from a successful British Supersport career, claiming runner-up in the Championship on two occasions, and Buis coming from WorldSSP300 as the 2020 World Champion, the pair have different

TYRES KEY FOR CURRIE

Although Currie brings plenty of Supersport experience with him from his days competing in Britain, the dual nationality Australian-German will be making his debut in WorldSSP in 2022, with the Jerez test his first chance to get on the WorldSSP-spec machine. At that test, he discussed the most important aspect he needs to understand ahead of the season starting in April.

Currie said: “The thing that stood out to me was the tyres. The tyres are so much better than anything I’ve ever ridden on. The grip is phenomenal. You can push so hard. It was just about understanding how hard you could push. With the SC1 already, which is the hardest compound available to us, it’s so much more grip than what I’m used to so when we put the SC0 on, I didn’t get the full benefit because I’m still trying to understand the limit. That was the most important thing. I think the electronics are pretty limited with the Kawasaki and the bike feels fantastic. I’ve ridden on a Puccetti engine before, so it was just like I remember. It shouldn’t be too difficult to understand everything and then push hard. I think moving forward through February and March with the testing, I’d like to do some longer runs, some more race-style runs. My fitness held me back a little bit in the test to do long stints. I would like to build a little bit more of a rhythm on a race run.”

BUIS FOCUSES ON BRAKING

After three seasons in WorldSSP300, including winning the title in 2020, Buis made the step up to WorldSSP at the end of 2021 for the Argentinean and Indonesian Rounds for the same squad he will race full-time with this season. On that occasion, with just two weeks between the final WorldSSP300 round and his on-track debut in WorldSSP, Buis was not able to get any testing under his belt. Ahead of 2022, he will get some valuable mileage in testing allowing him to adapt to the bike without the pressures of a race weekend.

Discussing what his focus was on during the test, Buis said: “The two days of testing went very well. I learnt a lot, especially how to ride with the Supersport bike. The thing where I focused on the most was braking because there, I can gain the most time. After the two days, I’m very happy with the progress and looking forward to the season. I think have to do more laps with faster riders. This was a good opportunity here because a lot of fast WorldSSP riders were here. To improve, I have to do more kilometres and train harder.”

Watch the 2022 WorldSSP season unfold in style using the WorldSBK VideoPass!