Money from China beckons: the favourites for QJ Motor’s new works team

Since mid-July, regular readers of SPEEDWEEK.com have known that the Chinese motorbike manufacturer QJ Motor is looking for a new partner for the Supersport World Championship. This is not a voluntary move, but is due to circumstances. Since the factory team’s entry in 2024, a branch of the Puccetti team has been responsible for developing the race bike and managing racing operations. However, Manuel Puccetti’s team has also been running the Kawasaki factory team in the World Superbike and Supersport Championships since 2025 and therefore has more than enough on its plate.

Puccetti therefore informed QJ’s management at an early stage that they would need to look for a new partner for 2027 and beyond. QJ intends to invest more in the Supersport World Championship in future and is in the process of setting up its own racing department at its huge factory in China – making the company an attractive and lucrative partner.

In early September, the racing manager in charge was sent to the SBK weekend at Magny-Cours, where she held lengthy discussions with potential teams. SPEEDWEEK.com has discovered that these included the World Supersport teams Orelac Ducati, PTR Triumph and AS Yamaha, as well as Motoxracing Yamaha from the World Superbike Championship.

Two teams have experience in development

Only two of them have experience in motorcycle development. AS Yamaha, Andrea Quadranti’s Swiss team, which leads the World Championship with Albert Arenas, has worked closely with MV Agusta for many years and has significantly influenced and guided the manufacturer’s involvement in the Superbike and Supersport World Championships.

PTR also possesses a great deal of expertise; the three letters stand for Performance Technical Racing: Team principal Simon Buckmaster, a former 500cc GP rider, has enjoyed some success in the Supersport World Championship with Honda; he has been in charge of Triumph’s works programme since 2022 and has put the historic British brand back on the winning track.

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The decision regarding QJ Motor is expected to be made before the next SBK event at the end of September in Cremona, northern Italy. Whoever is awarded the contract has a lot of work ahead of them: in its first year of competing in the 2024 Supersport World Championship, the Chinese brand failed to score a single world championship point with the SRK800RR, which was far too heavy and, on top of that, underpowered. In its second season, with Niki Tuuli and Raffaele De Rosa, it managed 36 points – but this still meant finishing by far last in the Constructors’ Championship.

A new racing bike for 2028?

This year saw the launch of the new homologation model, the SRK800RS, which was intended to mark a significant step forward. The sobering reality is that De Rosa and Marcos Ramirez’s points tally remains at zero so far.

According to reports, work is already underway in China on a new model, though it is not expected to be ready for competition until the 2028 World Championship. The SRK800RS is well received in the Asian market, but it lacks the racing DNA required for the circuit.

ZX Moto shows how it’s done: Zhang Xue’s company formed an alliance with the top-tier Evan Bros team, and together, through close collaboration, they developed the 820RR into a winning package.