Feature Story
Bassani, Lowes, and Gerloff Return to Kawasaki for 2027 WorldSBK Season
Bassani and Lowes Back with BbKRT, Gerloff with Kawasaki WorldSBK Team
bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team riders Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes will once again race the bimota KB998 Rimini next season, while Kawasaki WorldSBK Team rider Garrett Gerloff returns aboard the Kawasaki Ninja® ZX™-10RR, as each rider has reached an agreement to compete again for their existing team in the 2027 FIM Superbike World Championship. The Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’ is the home round for both bimota as a manufacturer and Kawasaki WorldSBK Team, which makes the timing of the rider announcement particularly special for all involved.
bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team
After a strong start for the first year of the KB998 Rimini’s racing life, in 2025, this season delivered podium results for both riders at the very first round.
Retaining the services of two of the WorldSBK Championship’s most potent riders should ensure that not only can the team aim for strong race results, but the whole project can continue in a linear and progressive fashion because of Lowes’ and Bassani’s shared experience with the KB998.
As it stands, on the eve of the first races at Misano, 35-year-old Lowes has scored five of his 51 career WorldSBK podiums on the KB998. Bassani has taken four WorldSBK race wins (three for Kawasaki) and is third on the list of the riders with the most race starts in this category. He entered WorldSBK as the reigning BSB champion back in 2014, and pre-Misano had started 372 individual WorldSBK races.
Bassani has a long experience of several race classes in his younger years, and has been a regular in WorldSBK since 2021. Bassani won the Independent Rider’s Championship in WorldSBK before he joined the Kawasaki Racing Team as an official rider in 2024. Like Lowes, Bassani became a BbKRT rider in the first year of the new project, 2025. The 26-year-old Italian has recorded eight podium positions in WorldSBK, with the most recent two taken in bimota colors, at PI earlier this year. Lowes is due to start his 200th WorldSBK race in the first 21-lap contest at his home round of Misano.
Before the start of the third season for Bassani and Lowes in WorldSBK with BbKRT in 2027, there is the small matter of competing hard in the six remaining rounds of the current championship, starting this weekend in Misano and then moving on to Donington Park, Magny-Cours, Cremona, Estoril, and finally Jerez.
Alex Lowes
bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team Rider
“Continuing with the team for the next two years feels really special to me. There’s a real family feeling within the team and crew, and that makes this project even more motivating to be part of. I’m fully dedicated to helping develop the bike on track and supporting the growth of the bimota brand in racing, and also for the road bike range. The encouragement of the fans is something that motivates me to try harder at every race, plus the positive input from the bimota factory and Kawasaki in Japan. It really is an impressive, global enterprise. I passionately believe in this project; it means so much to me, and I’m excited to keep pushing together for success in the WorldSBK championship.”
Axel Bassani
bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team Rider
“I am really happy to continue this project. Especially in the last year, we have started to grow up a lot. Also, the changes we made inside the team helped us to continue our project in a good way, and I think we are working well. I think it was the best decision to continue for one more year in our work. I think we have a lot of margin to grow up once again, and we shall see this year and next year. Thank you to the team, bimota and Kawasaki for this opportunity.”
Kawasaki WorldSBK Team
The Kawasaki WorldSBK Team and Garrett Gerloff have confirmed that will continue their successful partnership into a third FIM Superbike World Championship, even with half of the current 2026 campaign still to run.
Gerloff, his team, and the official Kawasaki Ninja® ZX™-10RR have made great progress in 2026, their second WorldSBK season together, with the high point so far being a fourth-place finish at the recent Autodrom Most round.
The occasion of the Kawasaki WorldSBK Team’s home race weekend, at Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’, provided the perfect opportunity to announce the good news of the renewed partnership.
This early first step into 2027 by Kawasaki also reaffirms the manufacturer’s commitment to the overall WorldSBK scene, via the continued race and development programm of the multiple World Championship-winning Ninja ZX-10RR.
Garrett Gerloff
Kawasaki WorldSBK Team Rider
“I am just super happy to have another opportunity to stay with Kawasaki and race the Ninja ZX-10RR in WorldSBK for another year. I feel that we have made so much progress this year, and we have been able to fight closer to the Top 5 positions more consistently. Top 5, at the minimum, is where I want to be, so it is nice that Kawasaki helped me to keep getting faster with the bike and the team. I hope next year we can do even more. I’m happy that they have confidence in me and I have confidence in them and that we can keep going. It is also very nice to announce that we are continuing together during the team’s home round at Misano.”
