Ten Kate Racing finished the season as the best team in the World Supersport class on Sunday at the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto. Stefano Manzi finished second in the final race of the year, earning his seventeenth podium finish this season. Jorge Navarro crossed the line in eleventh, giving Ten Kate Racing the team championship in the World Supersport class for the third season in a row.

After a red flag was waved after four laps in Race 2 for the World Supersport category at Jerez on Sunday, it was then resumed over seven laps. Stefano Manzi started well in that restart and climbed to second position on the first lap. The Italian was in a battle with Öncü but eventually managed to stay ahead of him as he crossed the finish line in second place. With four wins, 11 second places and two third places, Manzi finishes the season second in the championship with a total of 408 points.

Jorge Navarro had a significantly harder time in Race 2, riding in tenth place for most of the race. On the last lap he lost a position and eventually finished 11th. The Spaniard finishes his first season in the World Supersport class seventh in the championship with a total of 163 points, of which the podium finish in Portimão was the highlight.

After winning both the rider and team championships in 2021 and 2022, the Nieuwleusen-based team has clinched the team championship for the third consecutive season this year. The next season starts in the weekend of 23-25 February 2024 in Australia.  

Stefano Manzi – P2: 

“It was a good race today, it’s nice to finish the season in this way. This gives me energy to keep training hard this winter with a good mentality. I have to say thanks to the Ten Kate Racing team and Yamaha for choosing me this year, in the background they helped me a lot. We didn’t finish in the position we wanted to finish but, in the end, second is not so bad. We will try again next year.”

Jorge Navarro – P11: 

“Today wasn’t as we expected it to be but in the end, we managed to finish seventh in the championship. After the difficulties I had with my injury and my adaptation to the bike, that is something we can be proud of. The team has supported me a lot during the season so I want to thank them for that.”

Kervin Bos – Ten Kate Racing Team Manager: 

“Stefano rode another fantastic race today and showed again that he is a real racer. It is disappointing that we could not make a fist towards the Ducati this weekend, we know what we need to work on in the coming months to improve. We also expect the FIM and Dorna to review the regulations regarding the balancing of the bikes. Jorge unfortunately could not continue his form from yesterday to today, we had hoped he could have finished in the top five today as well.

This brings the season to an end with two new riders in which we eventually finished second with Stefano, seventh with Jorge – including a podium finish – and won the team championship together. From this we can conclude that we had a successful season. I would mainly like to thank our partners and sponsors because through their support we can achieve this, thanks also to the people at Ten Kate back at home who work behind the scenes and make sure we always have the best material.”