The Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing team has been in action over the past few days in southern Spain with the new Yamaha YZF-R9. For three days, Stefano Manzi – the Italian who is riding for the Nieuwleusen-based team for the third year in a row – and Yuki Okamoto – the new addition from Japan – were active to further develop Yamaha’s new World Supersport machine.

Because of the location of the well-known Circuito Almería and the relatively new Circuito Andalucía, it was convenient for Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing to evaluate the R9 on two different tracks in quick succession. With two more test days to go in Australia, the start of the new World Supersport season is already close at hand, where both riders and team hope to get off to a good start.

Stefano Manzi: “We have had some good test days here in Andalucía and fortunately we had some good weather as well. This year will be more challenging because we will have to start from zero with this new bike. We have done a lot of work but there is also still a lot of work ahead of us. For sure we still need to make some steps but I am happy with the general feeling we have now. We are on the right way and the team is working well. We still have two days of testing ahead of us in Australia and I cannot wait to ride there again.”

Yuki Okamoto: “In the first lap of first day unfortunately I had a crash. However, after that I could complete the rest of the testing days thanks to great work by the team. The atmosphere and the effort of the team was so brilliant that I could proceed with the program. Overall, this test meant a lot because I was able to understand the R9 and the Pirelli tyres. It is going to be the first year for me on this bike and on these tyres. So now our next stop is Philip Island for the first time in my career, for my first year in the World Supersport championship. I’m looking forward to hitting full gas with Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing. Please keep supporting me, and a big thank you to the team.”

Kervin Bos – Ten Kate Racing team manager: “We are ready for departure to Phillip Island. We had an exciting test with the new Yamaha YZF-R9. Last year we already had our first encounter with the new machine in Cremona, but it was great to have the whole team complete this time.

We rode for two days at Andalucía and one day at Almería, and we can say that a lot of work has been done. We are very happy with that, but of course, there’s still much work to be done with the new bike. We will be working hard on this in the workshop over the next two weeks. There’s enormous potential in the R9, and the lap times were good, so we’ll see what this will bring us.

We are looking forward to Australia, which is of course a very special event, even though it’s not always the benchmark for the rest of the year. Nonetheless, everyone is excited to line up there again. The introduction to Yuki has been very positive, and he has fitted well into the team from day one. We are ready for the battle in the new season and look forward to competing with this new lineup.”

In less than four weeks, Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing will be back in action. The location will be the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, where an official test will first be held on Monday February 17^th and Tuesday February 18^th. The first race weekend of 2025 will take place at the same Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit the following weekend, from February 21^st to 23^rd.