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The FIM Sportbike World Championship is here at last. The fledgling category kicked off with a bang at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in the Pirelli Portuguese Round. Antonio Torres (Team ProDina Kawasaki XCI) rode a round to remember, as he not only took podiums in both races of the category’s first round but also won the Championship’s inaugural race.

Rolling out on track for the Championship’s first-ever Tissot Superpole session, his 1’49.457s time saw him fall to the fourth row for P11. His time landed him second-fastest among riders on the Kawasaki ZX-6R 636, half a second behind Dutch rider Loris Veneman (MTM Kawasaki) in P2, and nine tenths out from P1. Prior to Saturday’s racing action, Torres incurred a 6-position grid penalty from FIM WorldSBK Stewards for irresponsible riding in the morning’s Warm Up session, shuffling him farther down to P17.

TORRES ON TOP: “The finish of the race was very close, I’m very happy as well that my teammate took second”

Starting Race 1 from P17, Torres took no prisoners, jumping back up to P10 by the start of Lap 2. He had worked his way past Elia Bartolini (CM Triumph Factory Racing) for P9 by the time the red flag was waved after several disparate crashes in the same lap, involving: Thomas Benetti (MMR) on Turn 4, Troy Sovicka (Panattoni BGR Smrz Racing) and Felix Mulya (ProGP Nitiracing) on Turn 1,  Kas Beekmans (VLR Racing Team Suzuki) on Turn 2, Xavi Artigas (MTM Kawasaki) and Carter Thompson (Team BrCorse) later on Turn 4. The race was then stopped as to clean up fluid which had leaked onto the track. After the restart, Torres maintained his assault as he made his way up to the podium positions for P3 by Lap 3 of 5. The final two laps featured a furious fight between Jeffrey Buis (Track & Trades Wixx Racing), Torres’s teammate David Salvador, and Xavi Artigas (MTM Kawasaki). Trading overtakes in a desperate final sector, Torres made the most of a slipstream behind his teammate and overtook him in the run to the line to top the podium in the first-ever World Sportbike race, outpacing his countryman Salvador by a mere two hundredths of a second.

On the honour of winning the new Championship’s first-ever race, Torres said: “I’m very happy! It’s my first victory, and for it to be the first victory ever in this category is incredible! The finish of the race was very close; I’m also very happy that my teammate took second. The WorldSPB category is very different; WorldSSP300 races were much crazier. WorldSPB is different. I like this new category a lot.”

Race 2 Torres went on to start Race 2 from P2 thanks to his Race 1 lap time behind Veneman. He struggled early on, sliding back as far as P8 by lap 4. He then strung together a vital trio of sub-1’49s laps, including the second-fastest lap of the entire race, a 1’48.514s effort in lap six to send him back up to P4. Fighting again with Salvador and his compatriot Xavi Artigas, he overcame the latter in the final lap to punch his ticket onto the rostrum for the second time in the weekend in P3. Torres’s exploits have placed him in an early lead in the Championship, a strong debut showing for both him and the category as a whole.

Catch Torres as he prepares to ride at Assen’s venerated ‘Cathedral of Speed’ on April 17^th! Don’t miss a moment with our live coverage via the WorldSBK VideoPass!