Italian Champion Baiocco returns to British Superbikes with Ducati

Matteo Baiocco in action on his Ducati

Reigning Italian Superbike Champion Matteo Baiocco has signed a one-year deal to join the Moto Rapido Ducati team to contest this year’s MCE British Superbike Championship.

The 28-year-old, from Osimo in Italy, rode for the Winchester-based squad at Silverstone last year as an injury replacement and returns for a full season with the blessing of Ducati, where he is an official 1199 Panigale test rider.

“I am very happy to finally formalise my agreement with the team Moto Rapido. We have been working for this together for a long time and I really want to thank Steve Moore for this opportunity. During 2012 I had already got to know Moto Rapido team and BSB, I like the team very much and I am excited to race in BSB,” said Baoix, as he is known in his native country.

“This will be a very important season for me after winning in Italy and I look forward to the challenge of riding in BSB and will do my best to be competitive in the best national series in the world. I want to say thank you to Ducati Corse and Ducati UK who will help us in this season.

A big hello to all the British fans that have a great passion and loyalty for racing.”

Team principal Steve Moore added: “Firstly I am really pleased to continue our project in BSB with Ducati and I am very happy to have put pen to paper with Matteo over the Christmas break. He is quite a character and I am sure the BSB fans will love him.

Matteo is twice Italian Superbike Champion with Ducati and his strong links to the factory brings increased technical support from Ducati Corse. With the upgrade to the 1199R Panigale this year we are expecting to progress well. We are still a new team so the challenge has been huge, but this season is looking stronger than ever for us and we have more exciting news still to come.”

“Thank you to our customers and sponsors including Solent Scientific, Aerodynamics, Motul for the continued support. On a personal note I would like to thank Scott Smart for the hard work of the last few seasons with us,his technical ability is astonishing and has helped us develop all areas of the 1199. We’ll be cheering him on in Supersport this year.”