Matteo Baiocco has always wanted to participate in the Suzuka 8 Hours and now the time has come. At the age of 40 he made his debut in “race of races”, now in its 45th edition. These days he is in Japan for tests. He will compete in the Superstock class on the Tatara team’s Aprilia and Dunlop tyres. He will have teammates Ruka Wada and Masahiro Shinjo, the two drivers who already did it last year.
Matteo Baiocco, known as Baiox, works for some as an Aprilia track technician in MotoGP but is not a former rider, far from it. As soon as he can, he puts on a helmet and suit and goes out on the track. This year he has already participated in the first race of the National Trophy 1000 Superbike on an Aprilia of the LR Corse team and climbed onto the third step of the podium. In an interview with Corsedimoto in mid-April he said “there could be something new, good, important, almost the realization of a dream I’ve always had.” Mystery revealed. Matteo Baiocco is now there among the great champions who will compete in the Suzuka 8 Hours.
Participation in the Suzuka 8 Hours has the flavor of a career award for Matteo Baiocco who in over twenty years of activity has participated in around ninety World Superbike races, plus twenty World Supersport races, and graduated for three Times Italian Superbike Champion (in 2011, 2012 and 2016), he triumphed in the European Supersport Championship and achieved many other important results.
In addition to Baiocco there will also be other Italians starting with Niccolò Canepa with YART Yamaha, fresh from the success at Spa. Also noteworthy is the opportunity in the hands of Christian Gamarino with Kawasaki Webike TRICKSTAR. Kevin Manfredi will instead compete with Team Frontier BMW in Superstock. In the same category there will also be Roberto Rolfo hired for this occasion by the debuting Team Etoile BMW.
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