Bimota Unveils its Much-Anticipated 2025 WorldSBK Challenger

Fresh off a positive test at Portimao last week, the new Bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team has unveiled its 2025 challenger with riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani.

Entering their second season together as teammates, Lowes and Bassani will be riding the highly-anticipated Bimota KB998 Rimini motorcycles in a striking white, black and red livery, with dashes of blue also featuring across the front and side fairing.

Bimota’s decision to join the WorldSBK championship came about after many discussions with Kawasaki, following the start of a collaboration that dates back to 2019. The partnership for the 2025 season is the first between the two companies in the world championship, as Bimota will use Kawasaki engines.

Kawasaki’s participation as a factory outfit in WorldSBK has not been lost despite Bimota taking over the KRT programme, as the formerly known Puccetti Racing team will be running full-factory machinery in 2025 with Garrett Gerloff.

Speaking at the launch, Shigemi Tanaka, Chairman and Managing Director of Bimota S.p.A, said: “To tell the truth, the idea of ​​participating in WorldSBK with a Bimota body and Kawasaki engine had been around since Kawasaki and Bimota first started talking behind closed doors before the announcement of the collaboration in 2019.

“The time had come to further promote Bimota's philosophy and brand to the world, and the WorldSBK was the obvious venue for this. In 2023, Bimota and Kawasaki jointly produced a prototype that would become the basis for the KB998 Rimini, and after getting a good feeling from running it, the go-ahead was given, and here we are today.

“By participating in WorldSBK with Bimota as BbKRT, we want to convey the historic Bimota brand, technology, heritage and philosophy to long-time Bimota fans. We want the younger generation with a bright future in the world of road racing, and the generation that doesn't know Bimota, to know about Bimota.”

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