WorldSSP: Adrian Huertas switches to Aruba.it Ducati in 2024

Adrian Huertas will ride for the Aruba.it WorldSSP Racing Team in the 2024 season.

Adrian Huertas will move to Ducati next season, replacing Nicolo Bulega in the WorldSSP team. With Bulega moving to WorldSBK next season, Huertas will take the reins of the Ducati Panigale V2. Huertas will move from the MTM Kawasaki team which he has raced for three seasons with in WorldSSP and WorldSSP300.

Currently, Huertas is eighth in the WorldSSP Championship and is the top Kawasaki in the highly competitive class. His best finish this season came at Donington and Imola with a fourth-place finish.

The Spaniard moved to the WorldSSP class after winning the WorldSSP300 Championship in 2021. He won the title with the MTM Kawasaki squad, taking eight podiums and six race wins throughout the season. In just his second year in the class, it earned Huertas the chance to step up to WorldSSP.

In his first season in the WorldSSP Championship, he finished 12^th in the standings, finishing as the third Kawasaki. His best finish of the season was seventh place, and he ended the year behind the experienced Glenn van Straalen.

Huertas said: “I am really happy to have reached this agreement. Racing for the Aruba.it Racing team is a big privilege for me. I have a goal: to be the first rider to win the World Championship in all three categories.

“I have already succeeded in World Supersport 300, and I believe that the Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP team is definitely the best choice to continue believing in this goal. Becoming a Ducati rider is also a dream coming true for me. Since I was a child, I have always supported Ducati and now I will have the chance to race with the Panigale V2.”

The move comes weeks after testing Kawasaki’s WorldSBK bike at Aragon, where he finished the test in sixth. The test was given as a reward for winning the 2021 WorldSSP300 Championship for the Japanese manufacturer.

Team Principal, Stefano Cecconi, added: “We enthusiastically welcome Adrian Huertas. We have high trust in his talent, and we are sure that he can give us great satisfaction. We appreciate the determination he showed in accepting our proposal: it confirms the quality of the project that started two years ago when we decided to embark with Feel Racing on the adventure of the World Supersport Championship.

With Nicolo Bulega moving to the Superbike class next year, Cecconi expanded: “We consider the Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP team a sort of junior team through which we develop young riders who can then continue their careers in the official WorldSBK team, as it happened to Nicolo Bulega who will be on the Ducati Panigale V4 R next season.

“Adrian is unanimously considered one of the best up-and-coming riders in the WorldSBK paddock and we expect him to keep growing and achieve important results.”

Image credit: worldsbk.com