Former MotoAmerica class champion and multi-time Superbike race winner Garrett Gerloff is kicking off the new year with his Kawasaki WorldSBK Team this week. The Texan is at the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto for a two-day test that commences on Wednesday and Thursday.
This will be Gerloff’s third test at Jerez aboard the official Kawasaki factory Ninja ZX-10RR as he prepares for his sixth season in the FIM Superbike World Championship, and his first season with the Green Team. At his previous test this past November, Gerloff raised eyebrows with his fast lap times right out of the gate, and he ended up fourth-fastest overall amidst the always-stiff competition what is a global pinnacle for Superbike racing.
For this week’s test, the Double-G and his team will have new parts and set-up options to try out in comparison with the parts and settings that they used during the previous two Jerez outings. Armed with the new components and options, Gerloff expects to face a greater number of riders from the other official and independent WorldSBK teams at this next test than he did during his previous two Jerez outings at the end of the 2024 season. He and his time welcome the challenge and are excited to see where they stack up this year.
“I am very excited to be on the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR again after not riding it since the last test at Jerez in November,” Gerloff said. “I am looking forward to going back to the same track as last time to see if we can find some more improvements. Then, I will be very excited to go to Portimao. That will be the first time I will ride the bike at a track other than Jerez. I know we can find more improvements from me, the bike and the team, so it should be fun to get 2025 officially started at Jerez.”
As Gerloff alluded to, following this week’s Jerez test, he will again be aboard the number 31 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR next week at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve (Portimão Circuit) in Portugal on January 28 and 29.
The 2025 WorldSBK campaign will be the first for team owner Manuel Puccetti as the official Kawasaki factory entry. With Gerloff as the lone rider, the brand-new initiative solidifies Kawasaki’s continued participation in WorldSBK with an official team.
Puccetti commented, “We’re very happy to be back testing our bikes less than a month ahead of the Phillip Island season-opener. Unfortunately, the weather forecast doesn’t look great for the first tests at Jerez, but we’ll try to make the most of the sessions, anyway. As for WorldSBK, we’ve already had the chance to work with Garrett Gerloff on our 2025 version of the Ninja ZX-10RR but we now have a lot of new parts to test, and we hope to be able to do that before shipping the bikes to Australia.”
The traditional, two-day Official WorldSBK Pre-Season Test at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Australia will take place on February 17 and 18 with the opening round of the FIM Superbike World Championship slated for February 21 through 23, also at Phillip Island.
