For 2019 season, Team Trasimeno will focus on Supersport 300 World Championship to improve the good results scored last year. The team owned by Moreno Bacchini, who boast two European Superstock 600 titles in their name (won in 2005 and 2007 with Claudio Corti and Maxime Berger), will line up four Yamaha YZF-R3 machines and the riders will be Italian talents Omar Bonoli and Kevin Sabatucci, Dutch rising star Finn de Bruin and quick Frenchman Hugo de Cancellis.
Omar Bonoli will face his first season in World Supersport 300 after performing well as a wildcard at 2017 Jerez Round (where he fought for the podium) and last year in Misano. The young Italian born in 2002 has joined WorldSSP300 after a good season in Italian CIV, where he scored many top 10 results at his second season in the championship. The year before, Bonoli had debuted in CIV on a KTM RC390R and then he gave an important contribution in developing the brand new bike from Mattighofen. Bonoli also competed in Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup from 2015 to 2017 and there he got many top-10 results and one podium-finish.
The other Italian arrow in Team Trasimeno’s bow is Kevin Sabatucci. After many seasons in Italian Moto3 Championship, Sabatucci moved to Supersport 300 clss during 2017 season, as ProGP Yamaha Team called him to replace seriously-injured compatriot Simone Mazzola. Sabatucci had struggled a lot during his Moto3 time and so he took such opportunity as a chance of rebirth. And it actually worked, because the Italian scored one win and two podium-finishes and then he finished eight out of twelve 2018 CIV races in Top 3. Furthermore, he scored a great third-place finish in his WorldSSP300 wildcard at Imola, at his very first race on the world stage. Sabatucci has been selected by Yamaha Motor Europe to compete in Yamaha R3 bLU cRU Challenge and this allowed him to step up to World Championship with Team Trasimeno.
By the way, there’s one more bLU cRU rider in Team Trasimeno’s line-up and his name is Finn de Bruin. The young Dutchman will contest full 2019 season after his wildcard appearance back in 2017 Assen Round. The 18-year-old rider from Julianadorp became Dutch Yamaha R3 Cup Champion in 2018 and previously he scored many wins in KTM RC Cup Benelux. His name doesn’t appear in freshly-released 2019 World Supersport 300 Entry List, but finally de Bruin will be in the fight. Hopefully he’ll be luckier than he was in his 2017’s wildcard, as a last-lap crash prevented him from scoring the podium back then.
While Sabatucci, Bonoli and de Bruin will be at their first season in Supersport 300 World Championship, 2019 will be the second year in the series for French rising star Hugo de Cancellis. The 17-year-old from Avignon landed to WorldSSP300 in 2018, as he was selected for Yamaha R3 bLU cRU Challenge, and he grew race after race till achieving his first WC points in Misano, where he crossed the line in 14th place. De Cancellis has been followed for many years by former Johann Zarco’s manager and coach Laurent Fellon and previously he won the title in Coupe de France Promosport 400 (2017, 12 wins out of 15 races) and French Yamaha ZFM150 Cup (where he won all the 12 races of the season in 2015).
All these riders have proved they’ve got the speed and Team Trasimeno look at 2019 season with much confidence, hoping for reaching great results in a very high-level championship.
Photo: Omar Bonoli during 2018 season.