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]
Broc Parkes 2012 SSP Donington
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
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(March 2018)
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.
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.
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]
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.
Ten Kate had the backing of the Honda factory until the 2019 season
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.
James Michael Toseland is an English former motorcycle racer and vocalist of his own rock band named Toseland. For 2020, he is team-manager of Wepol Racing with riders in World Supersport and Supersport 300.
Chris Vermeulen is a retired Australian motorcycle racer who last competed in the World Superbike Championship for the works Kawasaki team, perhaps best known for winning the 2007 French Grand Prix in MotoGP.
Andrew Pitt is a retired motorcycle racer. He is a double World Supersport Champion, and has also won a World Superbike race and competed in MotoGP. He lives in Peel on the Isle of Man.
Leon Lloyd Haslam is a motorcycle road racer based in Derbyshire, England.
Carlos Checa Carrera is a Spanish former professional motorcycle road racer and winner of the 2011 Superbike World Championship. After racing in 500 cc and MotoGP for over a decade, mostly on Honda and Yamaha machinery with and without full manufacturer support, he moved to the Superbike World Championship on a Honda for 2008. He has two Grand Prix victories. He has a younger brother, David Checa, also a motorcycle racer who competed in the Superbike World Championship for 2008.
Ryuichi Kiyonari (清成龍一) is a professional motorcycle road racer.
Jonathan Rea is a Northern Irish professional motorcycle racer. He competes in the Superbike World Championship and is a six-time champion in the series.
Makoto Tamada (玉田誠) is a former Japanese professional motorcycle racer currently working as a rider instructor in Suzuka Racing School. He is one of the few riders to win races in both MotoGP and Superbike World Championship.
Eugene Laverty is a former professional motorcycle road racer from Northern Ireland, the brother of Michael and John.
Cal Crutchlow is an English professional motorcycle racer who retired from regular competition after the 2020 season. He is contracted as a test rider for Yamaha Motor Racing, which he is expected to continue in 2022 and 2023. During 2021 he returned to race for two Yamaha teams as a replacement rider in four MotoGP events, and replaced Andrea Dovizioso for the last six events of 2022 after Dovizioso's retirement announced mid-season.
Superbike World Championship is a silhouette road racing series based on heavily modified production sports motorcycles.
The Supersport World Championship, abbreviated to WorldSSP, is a motorcycle racing competition on hard-surfaced circuits, based on mid-sized sports motorcycles. Competition machines were originally based on production-based motorcycles with 600 cc to 750 cc engines, depending on the number of cylinders. After trials in UK national series British Supersport, from 2022 the regulations have changed to allow eligibility of larger-displacement engines, to reflect the engine sizes being produced and encourage different manufacturers.
Miguel Praia is a retired Portuguese, 5 time world champion motorcycle racer. He now works on the broadcast team for MotoGP in Portugal.
Craig Jones was an English motorcycle racer. He grew up in the town of Northwich in Cheshire and attended Charles Darwin Primary School, and later Hartford High School. He died in 2008, shortly after a racing accident when he fell and was struck by another motorcycle.
Superbike racing is a category of motorcycle racing that employs highly modified production motorcycles, as opposed to MotoGP in which purpose-built motorcycles are used. The Superbike World Championship is the official world championship series, though national Superbike championships are held in many countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Australia and Canada. Superbike racing is generally popular with manufacturers, since it helps promote and sell their product, as captured by the slogan "Win on Sunday; Sell on Monday".
Sébastien Charpentier is a French motorcycle road racer. He is the first man to have won the Supersport World Championship in successive years, 2005 and 2006.
The 2011 Superbike World Championship was the twenty-fourth season of the Superbike World Championship. It began on 27 February at Phillip Island and finished on 16 October in Portimão after 13 rounds.
Michael van der Mark is a motorcycle road racer based in the Netherlands. He competes in the Superbike World Championship with a BMW M1000RR. He was the 2012 European Superstock 600 champion. In 2013 and 2014 he won the Suzuka 8 Hours with Takumi Takahashi and Leon Haslam in the Endurance FIM World Championship on a Honda CBR1000RRW. In 2014 he won the Supersport World Championship with PATA Honda.
Alexander Thomas Lowes is an English motorcycle racer. He signed in October 2019 for the Kawasaki Racing Team in Superbike World Championship as team-mate to multi-world champion Jonathan Rea.
MotoAmerica is the organization that promotes the AMA Superbike Series since 2015. Sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), it features six classes of road racing: Superbike, Stock 1000, Supersport, Twins Cup, Junior Cup, and Mini Cup.
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