The Kawasaki Weber-Motos Racing Team will compete in the 2021 IDM Superbike 1000 season with French rider Valentin Debise and Austrian rider Nico Thöni. With Debise and Thöni, Emil Weber’s team from Switzerland is fielding two riders in the premier class of the International German Motorcycle Championship for the first time. The new teammates already know each other—at least by name. They have previously competed against each other in the FIM Endurance World Championship.
Valentin Debise, born on February 12, 1992, in Albi, has already gained experience at various levels by the age of 28. Between 2009 and 2011, he competed in the intermediate Grand Prix class on 250cc two-stroke bikes and later in Moto2. In 2012 and 2014, the Frenchman competed in the Supersport. In 2020, he raced in six WorldSBK events.
Debise is no stranger to the IDM Superbike 1000 series either. He made his debut in September 2020 at the Hockenheimring finale, when he stepped in for Erwan Nigon on the Kawasaki Weber-Motos Racing Team. His compatriot was fulfilling a concurrent commitment in the World Endurance Championship. In Nigon’s absence, Debise immediately secured a third-place finish, marking Kawasaki’s best result of the season in Germany’s top motorcycle racing class.
Debise has long wanted to race in the IDM Superbike 1000 series and has officially raised the issue. “The level of competition in the IDM Superbike is incredibly high, but I think we have a good chance of competing at the front with our Kawasaki Ninja ZX10-RR, which has been prepared by Emil Weber and Kurt Stückle,” he explains. “We already showed glimpses of our potential at Hockenheim, even though the weather was chaotic during qualifying. It’s also great that we’ll be fielding two riders; that will really help us in further developing the Ninja.”
Nico Thöni, the winner of the newly launched 2020 ProSuperstock Cup, is moving up to the top class. The Austrian won five of the six Superstock races on a BMW. His previous racing series include the Red Bull Rookies Cup, MotoGP, the Austrian National Championship, and the AlpeAdria Cup. “In my first IDM Superbike 1000 season, I’m aiming for top-10 finishes,” the 25-year-old outlines his goals. Although he has never ridden a Kawasaki before, he is looking forward to it.
For team manager Emil Weber, the two-man team has its advantages: “We can collect more comparative data. Valentin’s clear commitment to the IDM was extremely important to us. The IDM will take priority if there are scheduling conflicts with the French championship. We want to be right up there competing at the front with him. Sure, Florian Alt and Ilya Mikhalchik are among the title favorites, but we should be able to secure a few podium finishes as well.”
Thöni, on the other hand, is set to have a learning year in the IDM Superbike 1000 class, “but with the lap times he’s posted on the production-based bike in the Pro Superstock Cup, he could already be competing in the upper midfield of the Superbike class.”