Editorial Note: Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC Team Principal Bobby Shekarabi, a.k.a. Bobby Shek, is denying the fact that Danilo Petrucci is hurt. This interview was recorded on a digital audio device, and this article is 100% accurate based on that recording.
Italian Danilo Petrucci will make his MotoAmerica Superbike debut on his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC Panigale V4 R this weekend at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in spite of suffering from a knee injury.
During an exclusive interview with Roadracingworld.com Thursday at COTA, Petrucci was asked if he was fully recovered from the various minor injuries he suffered while competing in the Dakar Rally in January in Saudi Arabia.
“For sure, not 100% fit,” said Petrucci. “With all the injuries I didn’t have the chance to do the usual training like motocross or simply go running. After the Dakar, for one month I don’t even work and I was really tired in my head. Then I got another crash with the motocross bike.
“This year I go riding motocross two times, and the second time — one month ago — I [tore] my collateral ligament in my left knee, really bad. In the first moment, I thought I broke the knee and the season was already over. But fortunately, an operation was not necessary. So, we work hard until last Sunday with my trainer and my therapist to let everything work. Maybe this race I’m not 100%, but for [Road] Atlanta I will be ok.
“I don’t expect to be fast, at least in this race, because everything is new to me. I have little experience with the [Dunlop] tires and little experience with the bike. At least I know the track.
“I want to make experience and try to understand, especially because I don’t even know the level of the other riders. I don’t know lap times or what’s going on. I want to see step-by-step what’s going on and try to be fast. For sure, I want to be fast. I did not come here to spend one year out of my home. I came here to enjoy and be fast on this bike as soon as possible.”
Not only is COTA a track that Petrucci knows well, it’s the place where the idea of him coming to race in MotoAmerica started.
“Last year here at MotoGP, Eraldo [Ferracci] came to me and said, ‘Why don’t you try to come here and race? It’s a really good opportunity and you are still young. You can come and be fast,’” Petrucci said the famed tuner told him. “At that time I was okay with KTM and doing all of the World Championship rallies.
“I say, ‘OK, Eraldo. I am a great fan of you and I would like, but I am OK. I am done for next year. I will participate in the Dakar and then in all of the Rally World Championship.’
“He said, ‘OK, but think about it. We can do it.’
“I said, ‘We’ll see.’
“Then I go testing with KTM on the World Rally bike, and it was OK. But KTM did not see any chance for me after the Dakar. They did not see my level. At the beginning, they [wanted] me to continue in the World Rally Championship, but first of all they wanted to see my performance at the Dakar.
“So, I say, they don’t trust me so much. But on the other side I’ve got Eraldo calling me almost every day. At least they [Ferracci] want me. So, I have to follow the feeling, that feeling. I say, ‘OK, Eraldo, I come racing in America.’ Then everything starts.”
And Petrucci said he was overwhelmed with the response he received after it was announced that he was coming to MotoAmerica.
“I received messages from tons of American fans saying they can’t wait to see me racing here,” said Petrucci. “I didn’t expect so much impact, especially in that moment because after the Dakar the media got a lot of interest in this because I am the only rider to win in MotoGP and a stage in the Dakar. So, it was something really unexpected.
“Like I did in the Dakar, I want to bring as many people as possible to MotoAmerica.
“It was absolutely nice to see the American riders and all the riders who are racing say, ‘If you need anything call me’ and ‘come here to my town and we will go training.’ I get messages from Ben Spies, from Toni Elias, from Josh Hayes, from Neil Hodgson, who was racing here some time ago.
“It’s really nice, the approach. It’s maybe something I need after MotoGP, where everything is so precise with the schedule. Here, it feels like they have more fun racing. When you go racing it’s still racing, but I feel like there is less pressure, more fun, and more enjoy the riding. That’s what I want.”
Petrucci is filling the seat left open by Frenchman Loris Baz, who raced for Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC in 2021 and fulfilled his stated personal goal of earning a path back to the Superbike World Championship for 2022. But Petrucci is looking at his move to MotoAmerica as a possible long-term thing.
“At the moment, I don’t have the plan to go to World Superbike,” said Petrucci. “Because in World Superbike the effort you have to put in is the same as MotoGP. So, I say, no. I need something different. For this reason I chose to go racing in the Dakar and MotoAmerica, because you don’t have all the eyes looking at you here.
“We have a big truck behind us, but on this side is a van with a rider and one mechanic and we go racing together. It’s a really nice environment. It’s what I like. After 10 years of MotoGP, I don’t plan to go to World Superbike. We’ll see, maybe I will go racing again at the Dakar and come back to MotoAmerica next year. We’ll see. First of all, we have to go racing this year.”
More, from a press release issued by Ducati:
Danilo Petrucci Set to Kickstart His MotoAmerica Career This Weekend at Circuit of The Americas
Two-time MotoGP Race Winner Petrucci Ready to Race in America
Sunnyvale, Calif., April 7, 2022 — Danilo Petrucci begins a new chapter in his racing career this weekend as the Italian joins the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York team for the 2022 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship with round one under the spotlight at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas.
Petrucci, 31 and fresh from an outstanding performance on the 2022 Dakar Rally, is no stranger to CoTA, having raced all the MotoGP races held at the expansive venue from 2013 through to 2021, and will thus have some valuable experience on which to draw as he squares up against the best riders and teams on American soil.
Despite having never raced in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship on the series’ control Dunlop tires with the factory-backed Panigale V4 SBK, Petrucci’s undoubted pedigree will see him start the season as one of the clear title favorites as Ducati aims to take its first American Superbike Championship crown since Australian Troy Corser on the Fast By Ferracci Ducati 888 in 1994.
Danilo Petrucci (Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York): “I am very happy to finally land in the USA,” Petrucci said. “I am really liking the Panigale but I don’t know the tires and most of the tracks are new. I’m excited with this new experience and glad to have the support from the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati New York team. I am looking forward to a fun race season because when I have fun, I am usually really fast. So the aim is to enjoy my racing and to be as fast as possible this year.”
Round one of the 2022 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship will kick off at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas on April 8-10, 2022.
