2013 WORLD SUPERSPORT PROVISIONAL GRID

While it seems unlikely Jed Metcher and Broc Parkes will return in 2013, the good news is that 2012 Australian Supersport Championship winner Mitch Carr and emerging talent Matt Davies will step up to fly the Aussie flag on the world stage this year.

After the 2012 grid featured just four manufacturers, 2013 will see both MV Agusta and Suzuki in the World Supersport field. 2011 WSS champions ParkinGO will run MV Agustas in 2013, while Team Suriano will run Suzuki's GSX-R600. Existing manufacturers are changing their structure and lineups, too.

Kawasaki will support the MAHA Racing Team, which retain the services of Kenan Sofuoglu and Fabien Foret for 2013. Honda will be the strongest force on the grid, with PATA Honda adding to their World Superbike efforts with a two rider Supersport team in 2013. Three privateer single rider CBR600R teams are also entered for 2013, but the biggest Honda squad will be PTR Honda, who has five entrants for the provisional grid, including Australian Matt Davies.

A veteran of European Junior Cup in 2011 and European Superstock 600 in 2012, Davies only turns 17 in January, but has already shown enough promise to get the opportunity to ride at World championship level, according to PTR Honda Team Manager, Simon Buckmaster.

The other Aussie on the grid this year is Mitch Carr. Uniquely, the 2012 Australian Supersport Champion will race in World Supersport with his Team AARK Racing outfit, who made the commitment to step up to the world stage in December. In addition to being the only Aussie team, the AARK Racing Daytona 675R will be the only Triumph on the grid this season after Suriano racing announced their switch to Suzuki. Team AARK Racing owner Andy Offer believes Mitch and the team can be competitive on the world stage.

Following a restructure at Ten Kate Honda, the Dutch squad will not field a team under their own name in 2013, but instead run the PATA-sponsored Honda World Superbike and World Supersport teams. Broc Parkes' place in what was the Ten Kate Supersport team has been taken by Lorenzo Zanetti, who will be joined by 2012 European Superstock 600 champion, Michael van der Mark.

Other notable rider shuffles for this season include Sam Lowes, who will switch to Yakhnich Motorsport (who will benefit from greater Yamaha support this season), while Robert Rolfo moves to World Supersport with the ParkinGO MV Agusta outfit after spending much of 2012 in the Moto2 class.

2013 World Supersport grid (as of 2/1/2013)

PTR Honda
Sheridan Morais
Luca Marconi
David Linortner
Nacho Calero
Matt Davies*

PATA Honda
Lorenzo Zanetti
Michael van der Mark

Pro Race Honda
Gabor Talmacsi

Toth PTR Honda
Imre Toth

VFT Honda
Fabio Menghi

MAHI Kawasaki
Kenan Sofuoglu
Fabien Foret

Intermoto Kawasaki
David Salom

Go Eleven Kawasaki
Andrea Antonelli

Yakhnich Yamaha
Sam Lowes
Vladimir Leonov

Rivamoto Yamaha
Jack Kennedy
Eduard Blokhin

Suriano Suzuki
Mathew Scholtz

AARK Triumph
Mitchell Carr*

ParkinGO MV Agusta
Roberto Rolfo
Christian Iddon

* Australian riders