Ten Kate Racing

Ten Kate Racing is a motorcycle racing team competing in World Supersport with 2023 rider Jorge Navarro and Stefano Manzi. They previously competed in the Superbike World Championship with 2019 rider Loris Baz, and previously with Gulf Althea Racing BMW Motorrad.

The re-built team participated in a part-season from June.^[1][2]

Ten Kate had the official backing of Honda for 18 years until late 2018, being their presence in both World Superbikes and World Supersport series, with reports of Honda's sudden withdrawal causing team bankruptcy.^[3]

Ten Kate raced a team as the Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team, a squad sponsored by Red Bull, using Honda superbike motorcycles in the Superbike World Championship.^[4]

History

Foundation

Gerrit ten Kate was a full-time motocross rider, who like many undertook his own mechanics. After semi-retirement from his own career, he guided his nephew Ronald ten Kate through regional motocross series to fourth place in the Dutch national championship. Having founded a workshop undertaking mechanics for other riders during his career, it was noticed that Ronald's bike was fast, which resulted in Gerrit expanding his workshop to the point where he was selling and maintaining 50/60 bikes per annum.^[5]

In 1993, Gerrit gave up his own motocross activities to concentrate on developing his motorcycle dealership Ten Kate Motorcycles in Nieuwleusen, near Zwolle in the north of the Netherlands. Soon after foundation, local road racing rider Harry van Beek came to the showroom looking for help, so Gerrit fixed it. Van Beek got a wildcard entry in the European Superstock round at Hockenheim, where he found he had the fastest bike.^[5] As a result, from 1994 Ten Kate entered road racing maintenance.

Road Racing

From 1995, the team entered its own team in regional Dutch road racing. Managed by Ronald ten Kate,^[6] each season Ten Kate Racing has increased in scope and size, and now takes a team of 28 - including technicians, administrative staff and four riders - to contest the World Superbike and Supersport champ:^[5]

With four engine builders, we are always looking to increase the performance of the motors. But there is a lot more to it than that. I would much rather have five horsepower less in a good chassis than five horsepower more that cannot be used. For that reason we have brought data-logging and suspension specialists into the team over the past few years to help us develop the whole package.

The team first entered the Supersport World Championship full-time in 2001, using Honda CBR600F4i motorcycles. In 2002 Ten Kate rider Fabien Foret won the championship, Honda's first in Supersport.

The team went on to win all of the last six Supersport World Championships using the Honda CBR600RR. In 2003 Chris Vermeulen won the title, followed by Karl Muggeridge in 2004, Sébastien Charpentier in 2005, who retained his title in 2006, the first rider ever to do so, and Kenan Sofuoğlu who won the championship in 2007. Also in 2008 Ten Kate wins with Andrew Pitt.

In 2004 the team also moved up to the Superbike World Championship using the Honda CBR1000RR and Chris Vermeulen as its single rider. Despite being a privateer entry with no support from Honda who had withdrawn its support from the Superbike World Championship, Chris Vermeulen finished fourth in the championship with four wins and was in contention for the title until the final round of the season.

The team expanded into a two motorcycles operation in 2005 with Karl Muggeridge joining Chris Vermeulen. Vermeulen managed 6 wins and finished the championship runner-up while Muggeridge had a poorer season and finished 11th.

Chris Vermeulen moved to MotoGP in 2006 and was replaced by 2004 Superbike World Champion James Toseland. Toseland finished the season runner-up with 3 race wins, while teammate Karl Muggeridge once again had a poorer season finishing 12th.

In 2007 James Toseland was joined in the team by Roberto Rolfo. Toseland got 8 race wins and won the championship in the final race of the season by a margin of 2 points. Rolfo finished 8th overall.

For 2008 the team continues to use Honda motorcycles, CBR1000RR in Superbikes,^[7] and CBR600RR for Supersport.^[8]

With James Toseland moving to MotoGP, former MotoGP rider Carlos Checa and 2 times British Superbike Champion Ryuichi Kiyonari join the team,^[7] while 2007 Supersport World Champion Kenan Sofuoğlu will ride a third motorcycle under the banner of Hannspree Ten Kate Honda Jr.^[9]

Kenan Sofuoğlu and 2001 Supersport World Champion Andrew Pitt ride for the team in the 2009 Supersport World Championship.^[8]

Honda has announced its plans for the 2013 World Superbike and World Supersport championships, which include a new four-rider line-up, a comprehensive technical development and testing programme and a new title sponsor.^[10]

In the World Superbike championship, current rider Jonathan Rea has signed with the team once more and will team-up with fellow Briton Leon Haslam on the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade. In the World Supersport championship, Italian Lorenzo Zanetti will ride Honda's CBR600RR alongside Michael van der Mark from the Netherlands.

Italian snack manufacturer Pata is the new title sponsor of the reinvigorated squad which will be known as the Pata Honda World Superbike and Pata Honda World Supersport teams. Both groups will once again be run by the Netherlands-based Ten Kate organisation.

For Jonathan Rea, 2013 will mark a fifth year on Honda's CBR1000RR Fireblade and his sixth season of racing with Ten Kate. The 25-year-old has enjoyed a spectacular and busy 2012, combining his World Superbike duties – including wins at Assen and Donington Park – with getting married and winning the Suzuka 8-hour race.

More recently, Northern Irishman Rea has replaced the injured Casey Stoner in the Repsol Honda MotoGP team, riding back-to-back Grands Prix with the final three rounds of World Superbike.

Haslam, 29, returns to Honda's CBR machinery after a three-year absence to continue a strong family link to the Japanese manufacturer. It was begun by his father, Ron, who won Formula 1 world championships and raced with Honda in 500cc Grands Prix.

With his own 250cc and 500cc GP experience, the younger Haslam, from Derbyshire in the UK, has been racing in the World Superbike championship since 2009 and was runner-up in the 2010 series. He has amassed a total of 28 podium finishes, including three race wins.

Lorenzo Zanetti is from Brescia in Italy and has been in the World Superbike paddock for three years, but began his career with Honda, winning the RS125 GP Cup in Italy in 2004. The 25-year-old finished third in the 2011 Superstock 1000 championship and has spent the 2012 season competing in the World Superbike series with a best result of eighth last time out at the Nurburgring in Germany.

Michael van der Mark. the 19-year-old from Gouda in the Netherlands began his career racing in the Dutch 125cc Junior Cup and has spent the last five years on Honda machinery.

World Supersport

Results

Year	Team	Bike	No	Rider	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	Pos	Pts	Constructors
																															Pos	Pts
2021	Ten Kate Racing Yamaha	Yamaha YZF-R6	9	Simon Jespersen	SPA	SPA	POR	POR	ITA	ITA	NED	NED	CZE	CZE	SPA 9	SPA 8	FRA	FRA	SPA 11	SPA 14	SPA	SPA	POR	POR	ARG	ARG	INA	INA	22nd	22	1st	456
			24	Leonardo Taccini	SPA	SPA	POR	POR	ITA	ITA	NED	NED	CZE	CZE	SPA	SPA	FRA	FRA	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	POR	POR	ARG 17	ARG 11	INA	INA	31st	9
			55	Galang Hendra Pratama	SPA 15	SPA 10	POR 20	POR 19	ITA 13	ITA 14	NED 14	NED Ret	CZE 14	CZE DNS	SPA 11	SPA Ret	FRA Ret	FRA 20	SPA 13	SPA 22	SPA C	SPA Ret	POR 22	POR 21	ARG	ARG	INA Ret	INA 13	21st	27
			77	Dominique Aegerter	SPA 2	SPA 5	POR 4	POR 1	ITA 1	ITA 1	NED 1	NED 1	CZE 4	CZE 1	SPA 1	SPA 1	FRA 1	FRA 2	SPA	SPA	SPA C	SPA 1	POR 3	POR 5	ARG 5	ARG 3	INA 2	INA 3	1st	417
2022	Ten Kate Racing Yamaha	Yamaha YZF-R6	24	Leonardo Taccini	SPA 18	SPA Ret	NED 10	NED 13	POR 14	POR DNS	ITA 14	ITA Ret	GBR 13	GBR 15	CZE 16	CZE 13	FRA 14	FRA Ret	SPA 11	SPA 9	POR Ret	POR DNS	ARG	ARG	INA 15	INA 18	AUS 17	AUS 19	21st	35	1st	571
			57	Bradley Smith	SPA	SPA	NED	NED	POR	POR	ITA	ITA	GBR	GBR	CZE	CZE	FRA	FRA	SPA 14	SPA Ret	POR	POR	ARG	ARG	INA	INA	AUS	AUS	33rd	2
			77	Dominique Aegerter	SPA 2	SPA 1	NED 1	NED 1	POR 1	POR 1	ITA 1	ITA 1	GBR 1	GBR 1	CZE Ret	CZE EX	FRA 3	FRA 1	SPA 1	SPA 1	POR 4	POR 1	ARG 1	ARG 1	INA 4	INA 1	AUS 5	AUS 1	1st	498
2023	Ten Kate Racing Yamaha	Yamaha YZF-R6	9	Jorge Navarro	AUS 9	AUS 6	INA 12	INA 8	NED 10	NED 7	SPA 7	SPA 9	EMI 8	EMI 18	GBR 12	GBR 11	ITA Ret	ITA 6	CZE 9	CZE Ret	FRA Ret	FRA 9	SPA 7	SPA 6	POR 3	POR 7	JER 4	JER 11	7th	163	2nd	445
			62	Stefano Manzi	AUS 6	AUS 2	INA 7	INA 2	NED 5	NED 2	SPA 6	SPA 3	EMI 2	EMI 1	GBR 2	GBR 5	ITA 1	ITA 1	CZE 2	CZE Ret	FRA 2	FRA 3	SPA 11	SPA 2	POR 2	POR 1	ARG 2	ARG 2	2nd	408

References

External links

• Ten Kate Racing
• Ten Kate Motoren in Dutch

This page was last edited on 19 November 2023, at 13:47