BSB Champion Alex Lowes Signs with Suzuki WSBK Team

Reigning British Superbike Champion Alex Lowes is moving up to the World Superbike Championship, signing on to race for the Voltcom Suzuki team.

The 23-year-old captured the 2013 BSB title for the Samsung Honda team but will now switch to a Yoshimura-prepared GSX-R1000 for the 2014 season, joining Eugene Laverty with the Voltcom Suzuki squad.

“This is just mega for me! I am coming to the Voltcom Crescent Suzuki team off a great year and making a step up to the World Championship, it’s just a fantastic opportunity and I can’t wait to get started properly,” says Lowes.

Lowes has already had a chance to test the GSX-R at a post-season test at Jerez, but had to receive permission from his former team as he was still under contract.

“I did a couple of shake-down tests to get to know my crew and the bike and I want to thank Honda for letting me do that, as it gave me an early insight into what WSB is like,” says Lowes. “The GSX-R felt great straight away; I think I will enjoy racing this bike a lot. I am really looking forward to the new season and I will try to learn as much as I can from Eugene and then try to beat him!”

Though Lowes is new to the series, he does bring a familiar face to the WSBK paddock. His identical twin brother Sam Lowes won the 2013 World Supersport title and was expected to move up to the Superbike class but instead signed to race in the Moto2 World Championship.

With Alex Lowes’ move to the international series, Honda announced last month it was withdrawing from BSB. Honda U.K. says it will continue to develop its CBR1000RR superbike with a few wild card entries through the BSB season. The factory team will instead focus on the Endurance World Championship before returning to BSB in 2015.

[Source: Suzuki, Honda]

By Dennis Chung