Sam Lowes has made the switch across from Moto2 to race in the World Superbike class for the first time in his career. Lowes’ hopes are high ahead of this weekends races at Phillip Island.

This weekend marks the start of Sam Lowes’ career as a World Superbike rider as the 33-year-old will start his first WorldSBK race weekend. After a whole winters preparation the British rider has shown impressive speed over the pre-season testing, but still has a lot to prove once the lights go out for the first race of the season.

Lowes does not enter the WorldSBK paddock alone as the team he competed with in Moto2 for four seasons will follow him over. Lowes will still be competing under the Marc VDS Racing umbrella as they expand their reach to the World Superbike paddock.

Ahead of his rookie campaign Lowes shared his thoughts: “It’s hard to put into words how I excited I am to start this new chapter with the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team. So much hard work has gone into making this project happen. And now the first round is finally here, I can’t wait to get my WorldSBK career started.

“There is a lot for me to get used to with a different schedule and competing in three races but it’s a challenge I’m relishing. I feel we have prepared in the best possible way and I feel ready. And I know I’ve got a fantastic team behind me, so we’ll be giving our all to make sure this new journey gets off to a positive start.

“One of my main targets is to keep improving and keep gaining experience. Everything is all still quite new, so we need to see where I am in the first race and then work to keep improving from that point. I feel my pace was strong enough at the test earlier this week to be fighting for the top five and that’s where I aim to be.”