Ten Kate rolls back the years as Aegerter lands its record tenth WorldSSP title

Ten Kate Racing is celebrating returning to the top of the WorldSSP Championship after Dominique Aegerter successfully secured a tenth title for the team, seven years on from its last spell at the summit of the intermediate class.

Experienced Swiss racer Aegerter has been a class act on the Ten Kate Yamaha R6 in his first season of WorldSSP racing, the former Moto2 race winner dovetailing his commitments with a stint in the MotoE World Cup that very nearly yielded him that title too.

While that success was stymied by a last lap clash with Jordi Torres that led to him being penalised by stewards, Aegerter’s route to the WorldSSP crown - his first international success in 15 years of trying - was far more definitive, with a run of nine wins from ten races surging him into a lead he’d manage enough to wrap the title up with a round to spare.

A huge career moment for Aegerter - who beat another ex-Moto2 rival Steve Odendaal to the top spot - it is also a landmark return to glory for his Ten Kate Racing team, which harked back to the dominant days of the early 2000s with its first title since Michael van der Mark won the 2014 championship.

Ten Kate completes its long road back to the top

The Dutch team was the dominant force in WorldSSP between 2002 and 2014, winning a record nine titles - seven of which were achieved consecutively - while competing as a Honda customer alongside its WorldSBK effort.

The team was responsible for helping to launch the careers of an impressive roll call of World Championship winning riders; Karl Muggeridge, Sebastien Charpentier, Chris Vermeulen, Kenan Sofuoglu, Andrew Pitt and Michael van der Mark, while Jonathan Rea also started his international racing career with the team in 2008 before stepping up to WorldSBK.

This, however, is its first since parting ways with Honda prior to taking a sabbatical and returning as a Yamaha customer in 2020.

Ten Kate’s return to the top is made all the  more fitting in that it comes in the concluding season of the long-standing set of regulations based around the 600-675cc formula that has served WorldSSP for much of its time on the WorldSBK support programme.

An increase in the permitted engine size will allow new sportsbikes to be homologated under WorldSSP rules, including the Ducati Panigale V2, plus the 765cc Triumph entry based around the Stree Twin and also the MV Agusta F3 800.