While her Barni Spark Racing teammate Michele Pirro wrapped up his 10th Italian National motorcycle road racing championship on Sunday, 17-year-old MotoAmerica rider Kayla Yaakov completed her first-ever weekend of racing in the Italian Supersport Championship.
Yaakov, from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was a wildcard entry at Mugello Circuit, and she raced the number 31 Ducati Panigale V2 for the storied and highly successful Barni Spark Racing Team, incidentally the same team for which MotoGP racer and 2022 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship runner-up Danilo Petrucci currently competes.
Starting from 35th on the grid, Yaakov’s Sunday race two netted the same results as Saturday’s race one. Once again, she moved through the pack while also taking advantage of attrition by some of her competitors, and she crossed the finish line in 25th place. The results were not what she was hoping for, but no one is a tougher critic of Kayla Yaakov than Kayla Yaakov herself.
“I’m a rider, and these results can’t make me 100% happy, but I’ve learned a lot from this experience,” Yaakov said. “The tires, the suspension, the characteristics of the circuit, everything was different from MotoAmerica, but I’ll take a lot of information with me. I worked with fantastic people, including Luca Minelli, Danilo Petrucci’s chief engineer in Superbike. He and everyone else were very helpful; the team is very organized and professional. The level here at CIV is very high, and it was great to compare myself with a completely new environment.”
Everyone on the Barni Spark Racing Team was impressed with Yaakov, and her results fully satisfied team owner Marco Barnabò who commented, “I have to say ‘well done’ to Kayla; in her work method and riding sensitivity, she shows much more than her 17 years. She’s going to go far. I hope this wild card experience helped her in her growth; she’s still very young and has plenty of room to improve!”
All in all, the entire Italian Supersport Championship experience was beneficial for Yaakov’s career in MotoAmerica. She’ll return to the MotoAmerica Supersport Championship on September 13 through 15 at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, and apply all she has learned when she races her number 19 Rahal Ducati Moto Panigale V2 in MotoAmerica’s penultimate round of the 2024 season.
