Superbike Advocates Racing team owner Lee Khouri on Tommy Bridewell and WorldSBK, World Ducati Week, and a very special Ducati collection

We’ve had positive feedback from the WorldSBK paddock and have also had a few officials from Dorna come and congratulate us on our results to date. They’ve said it's remarkable for a first-year team, halfway through our first year and having missed the first round, to be producing the results that we are. 

At first everybody was saying, you guys aren't going make it, Tommy Bridewell's not going to be top ten. But Superbikes Advocates Racing has scored a P5, P6, P7 and a P9. We're well and truly in the top ten, which is really exciting. 

Tommy Bridewell’s a real character, and that's a good thing. He's got the skill on the bike, no doubt, but he's also got the personality and character. He greets fans, interacts with them. He doesn't have an entourage. Some of the other riders have five people around them, you can't get close to them. I just like the way Tommy operates, the same way we do. Down to work, humble, and just moving forward and producing real results. 

I’m so proud of the team, Mick Shanley, Alan Jackson, the guys are just great and the mechanics, remarkable. You know, everyone's working together like a family, which is exactly what I stepped out to create. I told them from the get-go, my corporate entity is all family run. It's a family vibe. We've got staff in the company from my grandfather's time, carried over to my dad. And now to myself, meaning they've been there for 45 years, well before I was born. So, they've seen me as a baby, and now they're still working for us. I explained that to a few team members and I want to build up this team with the same vibe. What happens in my corporate world needs to happen in my racing world. That way it's more functional. You work in harmony, peace, loving. Think about it, when the team go racing, they’re away for a whole week. There's at least 15, 16 weeks a year. You've got to be like a family. You can't be clashing heads and having ego issues. We try and eliminate all that. And so far, it works.

Ducati Corse has an open data policy, which has been remarkable for us. It helps a lot. But we've also got a great data tech in Giulia Minelli. She's only young and new to it but she's already adapted, and she's managing to edit the software the way she needs, and the data and protocols. Between her and Mick, they've been able to produce the results, have the bike running perfectly smooth. 

At Donington we were producing the results, qualifying inside the top ten for Superpole. The Superpole race result was P7. Race One was P5. And for Race Two, if Tommy could have his held position I think we would have been able to achieve a P4.

Tommy’s enjoying the new Panigale V4R. He says it's a much better bike, more responsive. He said more balanced as well, so that swingarm at the back feels a lot better, and that the grip is a lot better as well. So yeah, overall, it’s been a very satisfying project to part of. 

The more he gets used to the bike and the physics of the electronics in WorldSBK, the more he’s progressing and getting a lot more confidence too. Which is what you need in a rider that needs to build that confidence and, you know, that skill level comes straight after that, especially when they're hungry, like Tommy. He's just hungry to be at the front. And you can tell, you can see that with his riding. 

With the Australian Superbike Advocates Racing team, Glenn Allerton won the last race for the season in Queensland. If you watch that battle online, you’ll see it was a well-fought first. I was in Italy when that happened, watching it live and shouting at the screen. The whole family was jumping in joy and cheering him on from this side of the planet, and he did it. It was good to end that on a high note. Our younger rider Josh Newman happens to be Glenn's nephew and they’ll both be back in action for us in ASBK. Josh is progressing slowly, but eventually he'll get there. He’s on the big bike as well and he'll be riding next season. Glenn will be on the new 2026 bike, the same as Tommy. And Josh may still be on the ‘25 and ‘24 bike and see how we go from there. And once he gets a grip of that, then we can put him on the new bike as well. 

I love Italian automobiles, so Ferraris, Lamborghinis, anything Italian, but also motorcycles. So, I obviously love Ducati. I first laid eyes on a 1098 S, brand new at the time. I ordered it brand new and had just got my bike license. As soon as I jumped on that, well that was it. I had the bug. Then I wanted a 1098 R, then the Desmosedici came out. Then I just kept climbing, buying all the latest. Then about maybe ten or eight years ago I went back and said, no I need all the classic models, all the early stuff. I ended up buying every 916, you know the 996, 998, then the triple nine. I've got every one of them, but I don't have just one, I've got two or three off each. Like the old 916 Foggy Edition, I have three of those. Three Supermonos. I ended up buying all the old models, whatever I could get, like the 888 A, all of them. So, I kept going older, older, until I have most of them. It's a bug. But they look so pretty, right? They look like artwork. I've got a MH900e sat downstairs in my own living space at home, and it just looks really good. It was remarkable at the time where Ducati had it as an online order. I didn't order it; I was too young and was still in school as a kid. But people ordered them straight off the internet. Apparently, they sold out within an hour, via dial up internet. Crazy! 

My bike is brand new out of the crate. I should have left it in the crate, but I removed it out of the crate. And it just looked stunning in the flesh. I just had to park this downstairs in the living room area at home where I hang out, and the kids hang out, and it's just sat there in the middle, looking amazing. 

I'm loving the 999 at the moment, both the Fila and the Xerox liveries. I think they look stunning. You know, they've got that Robocop-esque futuristic look, and they've come back into play now. I'd say, over time, they've gotten more beautiful and more appealing. They were so off the mark when they came out. The 999 looks totally different, futuristic, and all. Unlike the twin headlights, the triple nine had a bit more of a curvaceous look to it, and that boxy exhaust at the back under the seat. And to look at it now, it looks even more appealing today. Actually, a lot of people tell me that the triple 9 today looks better, in their opinion, than the 916. Time will tell on that but right now the 999 are my current favourites, so I’ve got every single version ever made. I’m obsessed!

And I would say outside of 999, the 916 is one of my classic favourites – especially the 955 SPA. Ducati only made a few examples of that model, and I have one of those in my collection. 

Sadly, I don’t get to ride the bikes much, and they’re static displays since the kids came along, but every now and then I do take one out for a ride. I wish I could get out more, but I'm so busy, and always travelling around the world with work. I think last time I checked, I travel about 20-something weeks a year. I'll be in the US in another five weeks from now, spending another five, six weeks there. And then Hong Kong, then Japan, Yeah, it's crazy. But the family always join me when they can. As a tribute to my son, we have his birthday as a VIN number on the race bike, and my daughter's name is proudly displayed on the race bike’s belly pan. 

World Ducati Week was a great highlight. I’ve never been before but what an event. I've never seen anything like it. To have fans of a single brand, and so many of them come out and support it, that's bigger than any Ferrari or Lamborghini event I've ever been to, for a one-make event it was very impressive. Over 115,000 people, and you could see it and feel it. I would say it felt like even more, because I go to F1 races, and I've seen when there's 3-400,000 people. This felt a lot more, and I think they didn't include all the people that were outside hanging about and all the people around like Riccione and all the other towns nearby Misano. Like, there were Ducati motorbikes everywhere, every day, every time we went out, at the beach, just lines and lines of Ducati motorcycles everywhere.

I wasn't expecting it, so it was a privilege to be called upon and asked if the Superbikes Advocates Racing team could be presented on stage at World Ducati Week, even mentioning that I flew all the way from Australia to be there. They had the team and Tommy up on the big screen. It was exciting, and a real first for us. We're glad to be appreciated and recognised. And it was brilliant for that to happen during Ducati’s centenary celebrations as well.

The Race of Champions was pretty cool. Tommy beat some big names there to come sixth out of maybe 18 riders, all Ducati specialists and champions in their own right. You had the Australian champion there, the US champion, Asia, like every continent around the world, all their champions, the best of the world. And Tommy was right towards the front, beating a lot of the GP guys! It was great. But Bulega was another level, as we all know. He's probably the world's fastest rider today, ultra talented.

We had to play homage to the UK for the recent Donington Park WorldSBK round. That's our team’s home as well and I always find this as my second home in the world. Being Australian, we've got that link, we see the UK as the motherland. So, we paid our respects with that livery. It's in our heart, and that's why we fly the flag. We still have an Australian flag on there on the wings, and the Union Jack too.  

Going to WorldSBK was always on the bucket list. It was always on my mind. But it seemed too far-fetched and I thought with the new team we’d take baby steps towards it with a few years in BSB first but opting to do some wild card rounds.

But after Tommy jumped on the bike at the pre-season Misano test, Mick and Alan realised how good the Panigale ran, and how good Tommy's times were. And on the second day, Tommy said that maybe this WorldSBK thing might be okay. He started feeling more confident and I think he started seeing the paddock and seeing everyone else around, because the Aruba.it Racing - Ducati team were at that same test and a few other WorldSBK teams. Everyone takes a liking to that, and it’s a bug that you catch, you just want to be part of it. Like me, I've now been to two race weekends, and I've got the bug. I really want to be there at every one! So, then Tommy made his positive comment. The guys called me up pretty much immediately to let me know so I said let's just do it! If Tommy feels confident, then what are we doing? Why waste time? Let's just jump straight into it. 

We'd already got the bike because I had spec’d our bikes to be ordered exactly the same as the Aruba bike. I had already paid that extra premium to have the WorldSBK full-spec bikes. Mick got on the phone to Dorna straight away and they welcomed us in! It was too late for us to join the season opener at Phillip Island, but we were there for the second round. 

The Donington round was the first race I could attend. And being on the grid with my team was mind-blowing. It was like a dream, a real pinch me moment, because every other time I've gone to a race like that I’ve been a guest of Ducati and can walk around and take photos but always at a distance. This time, I was truly part of it. That was like next level for me. It was so satisfying and a box ticked moment in life. Achieving that, on the grid with my own team, was just amazing, and I wish I could experience it all year round, but unfortunately business does not permit me. Because without the business, there is no racing. So, I've got to focus on keeping the wheels turning for the team so they can keep on racing. 

We’re working on plans for 2027, but the Superbike Advocates Racing UK team will always be based in the UK and will always feature a rider from the UK. We want to promote home grown talent on the world stage and feel like our journey with Ducati has only just begun, albeit in the best possible way.