Troy was a factory Ducati MotoGP rider alongside Capirossi for 2 years, then switched to Camel Honda for one year before returning to WSBK and then had a one off ride and won the last race as a stand in for Gibernau in 2006, again on the Desmo.
I believe Shakey is Brad's manager, so I am sure there were lots of discussions around this and considerations to get to this decision, as we all know there aren't many people making a living in domestic racing series, I'd imagine Brad could be making a small salary now given the title under his belt. He's not going to go into WSBK and set the world on fire, I suspect this is to get him on the world stage and to see what options he will have in 2024. Worst case he heads back to BSB and tries to win a second title. However, if he shows a glimmer of talent on the world stage (let's not forget he raced at Suzuka for Suzuki so the Japanese have already identified his talent) then he'll get a decent ride in 2024. Will Toprak stay in WSBK or move to MotoGP (assuming Morbidelli fails to deliver, or Yamaha get another satellite team) for example? Will Rinaldi get another year at Aruba Ducati, I suspect he won't and Bassani will get his ride, so will Rinaldi get a ride somewhere else or do teams take a punt on a younger, hungrier and cheaper rider?
I really hope BR does well, I think he is a world class rider. Against him, is that the ride itself looks a bit shonky and may run out of money part way through the season. For him, is that the tracks tend to be more open, faster and more flowing which suits his high corner speed style
I think he will probably be top 15, if the bike is really good. The issue with some of those teams, and was evident at Assen was that the least funded Yamaha team was actually running around on a bike with fork internals and near stock rear bodywork, not even race stuff, I couldn't believe my eyes. If that team is the same (bearing in mind I don't think anyone could name who actually rode for them in 2021). The other issue, is that in 5 years time there will only be a few European rounds, probably Spain and Italy... that's not me being overly political but the fact is, that Bikes here aren't a market manufacturers care about now, and the fans aren't voting with their feet and turning up to racing. BSB lie about their spectator figures, but in reality they are probably similar to WSBK at donnington which pulls around 15k per day in spectators, that's pretty woeful and the Eurosport coverage is probably only amounting to maybe 150k viewers. Asia rounds are still attracting pretty strong gate figures. so after all that, what I'm saying, is that he needs to be on a bike that he gets a full year on, or stay in BSB. It's different I think for Chaz, he did the BSB championship win last year, and then had a hard year this year, if he doesn't move and has an average year he is done.
I blame Gen Z. (for everything - only seems fair as they blame Boomers and Gen X for all that is wrong in their world! ) It seems it’s only going to get worse as the younger Generation moves into the workplace and becomes economically active. As a whole (always exceptions of course) they are statistically more likely to be interested in E-sports. Less and less are interested in Motorsports - and other sports are seeing a decline too. What makes you think MSV lie about Spectator figures? I always though BSB bucked the trend - crowds always seem big - especially at certain rounds - I went to Cadwell to watch for the first time in many years and the crowd was way bigger than back in 2000 when I last went (far more commercial too - could camp pretty much anywhere back then).
