VOL. 54 ISSUE 29 JULY 25, 2017 P83
D
utchman Ronald Ten Kate and the Ten Kate Racing team have been
a fixture in the WorldSBK paddock for over two decades. The Dutch
outfit has won everything there is to win under the guidance of
Ronald and uncle Gerrit, and since 2015 has taken the role of official Honda
WorldSBK team—a position they almost always had, but it's only in the last
two seasons it's been made official.
Ronald has seen champion riders come and go, and has the dubious
honor of bei ng the final team the late Nicky Hayden raced for, prior to his
death in a cycling accident in May this year. Since that time, however, a new
American has stepped in to fill the great Kentucky rider's shoes at his home
race at Laguna Seca a couple of weeks ago, with Jake Gagne impressing the
team bosses with two points-scoring rides on a machine that's so far proven
difficult to extract top performance from in the new Honda CBR1000RR SP2.
We sat down with Ronald at Laguna Seca to get his thoughts on everything
from his passion for racing to the proposed new rules for Superbike competi-
tion and being pleasantly surprised with new boy Gagne.
The Honda Racing WorldSBK team boss on life without
Nicky Hayden, a new bike and a new American star
FOR LIFE
WorldSBK
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
