Former MotoGP rider Danilo Petrucci will contest the 2022 US Superbike Championship season on a Ducati Panigale V4 R
It had been rumoured for weeks, and on Friday it was officially announced: Danilo Petrucci will compete in MotoAmerica’s Superbike class in the USA for the 2022 season. The 31-year-old Italian has signed with factory-backed Ducati team Warhorse HSBK.
After ten MotoGP seasons, five of them on a Ducati and most recently one season on a KTM, it is a return to a machine from the Italian manufacturer for “Petrux”. As the successor to Loris Baz, who rode for Warhorse in 2021, Petrucci takes over the Panigale V4 R from the racing stable based in the US state of Pennsylvania. And to be closer to the team in his new sporting field, the Italian is moving directly to the US.
“I’m so happy to be racing with Ducati again,” Petrucci confesses, explaining why he has chosen a “fresh start”: “I want to continue having fun riding my motorbike. I chose this project to have new experiences personally. I will live in America. This is something new and exciting for me. I am extremely curious and excited to get started. “
However, Petrucci will not be involved in the 2022 MotoAmerica season opener, the Daytona 200 on March 12 at Daytona. His season, like that of all Superbike riders in the USA, begins on the second weekend of April at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin (Texas), as part of the World Motorcycle Championship’s Grand Prix of the Americas.
In total, Petrucci’s 2022 MotoAmerica season comprises ten stops with two races each. Apart from Austin (9/10 April) and Laguna Seca (9/10 July), all the circuits are new territory for him. The season finale will take place on 24/25 September at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham (Alabama).
Petrucci will test the Ducati Panigale V4 R for the first time on Tuesday and Wednesday next week (8/9 February). However, the test will not take place in the USA. Instead, “Petrux” will do the first laps with his new machine in Portimao (Portugal) as part of a Superbike World Championship (WSBK) test.
