A happy-ending story has taken place within Supersport World Championship field. 2018 European Supersport Champion Rob Hartog will contest the whole 2019 season on the Kawasaki ZX-6R of his own Team Hartog – Against Cancer and this will take the young Dutchman to circuits like Phillip Island and Buriram.
Known also as the nephew of Wil Hartog (who raced in 500cc World Championship during the second half of 1970s), Rob has worked very hard together with his team to secure the budget they needed and finally their goal has been reached thanks to the team’s loyal sponsors and a successful crowdfunding campaign on Dutch website Talentboek. Rob Hartog’s best results in WorldSSP are two eight-place finishes (scored in 2017 at Jerez and in 2018 at Assen) and his goal for this year is to perform even better. “We want to score a top-5 result and finish the season inside the Top 10“, said the Dutchman in Team Hartog’s press release.
They’ve worked a lot to secure World Championship participation, but the time for relaxing hasn’t come yet. “The team – said Hartog, who’ll turn 27 on 26th March – is working to prepare everything for Jerez Official Test, scheduled on 23rd and 24th January. Then, we’ll have to send all the equipment to Australia on 4th February“. In any case, the rider from Abbekerk is very confident ahead of his new adventure, whose start will happen from 22nd to 24th February at Phillip Island: “I’m confident we have a very strong package and for sure we’ll make a step forward compared to 2018“.
Photo Credit: Philippe Damiens – WSBK Flat Out