The two-day track session at Cremona was held in dry and warm conditions, and allowed the whole team to not just get back into a positive way of working together after a long summer break in race action, but provided an opportunity for important set-up and machine development work on the Ninja ZX-10RR.

Additionally, Cremona itself will host a WorldSBK round just three weeks after Magny-Cours, with the experience of the recent test providing a starting point for the return there in full race mode.

Magny-Cours has traditionally been a strong venue for previous iterations of the current Kawasaki WorldSBK Team, and across several championship classes, not just WorldSBK. The 4.411km-long French track has also been a happy hunting ground for Gerloff, who scored a podium finish there in 2024.

Two-thirds of the season was completed at the previous Donington Park round in mid-July, but since then there have been seven weekends with no racing action in WorldSBK. The Kawasaki WorldSBK team hopes to restart in the best possible fashion in France, before the final three rounds at Cremona, Estoril, and Jerez.

Gerloff’s weekend on track at Magny-Cours will begin with two free practice sessions on Friday, 4 September, followed one day later by FP3, Superpole Qualifying, and Race One. The ten-lap Superpole Race and a full-length Race Two will finish off the ninth round, on Sunday, 6 September.

After the completion of the WorldSBK weekend in France, the tenth round will take place at Cremona, Italy, between 25-27 September.

Garrett Gerloff stated: “I’m pleased to be going back to Magny-Cours. I have good memories of the track and reached the podium there in 2024. I like the layout and it suits my riding style. It was important to test at Cremona, as we were able to get back into the swing of things and identify new solutions for our bike as well as a setup with which to start the weekend in France. We’re ready to put in the work to achieve the best possible results.”