Moto Rapido preparing a Panigale for 2023 British Supersport

Moto Rapido Ducati will add a Panigale V2 to its collective arsenal to compete in the 2023 British Superport series.

Under the next generation middleweight regulations, the 955cc V2 is allowed to compete alongside Triumph’s 765, MV Agusta’s 800 and the more regular four-cylinder 600s using balancing rules drawn up by the FIM’s resident Tefal Scott Smart. We had a sit down with team principal Steve Moore to find out what the hell he thinks is getting himself into… Wilf, you’ve spent quite enough money in BSB already. What is possessing you to spend even more money in Supersport? Well, we were encouraged by Ducati, which is quite nice. Obviously, the TriOptions Cup comes to an end the end of this year, so there’s a small bit of the support that Ducati have been putting into that series that they have made available for this project, which is nice. A few of our sponsors now are very keen on the idea, too. It’s considerably cheaper than racing a Superbike, so it makes is possible for us to have a good range. It’s not possible to expand to a second Superbike so with the Ducati now being eligible for the Supersport class it seems to make sense. There’s not much new in racing, and the next generation Supersport stuff is very interesting. Lots of manufacturers are getting involved now too. It’s like Supersport has been a bit R6 Cup, the occasional MV and the occasional Kawasaki are doing well, if you’ve got the right pilot. So, with no new 600cc bikes now, it’s just been dull looking at the same bikes for 10 years. So, we have kept a close eye on what’s happing at World Supersport level and it seems the balance looks good with very close and fun racing.

Will you be the Oxford Products Racing, Moto Rapido Ducati longest name in