The Red Bull Honda team will bring in American Jake Gagne to partner Stefan Bradl at this weekend’s US round of the World Superbike Championship from Laguna Seca.
The Red Bull-backed Ten Kate squad has only entered 2011 Moto2 world champion Bradl in the races at Donington Park and Misano following the tragic death of Nicky Hayden in May.
21-year-old Gagne currently sits 12th in the standings in the MotoAmerica Superbike series – 159 points behind ex-MotoGP star Toni Elias at the top of the standings in 12th – riding an American Honda-backed 2017 Fireblade. 
The American is also a winner of the Red Bull Rookies Cup in 2010, and romped to the title in the Daytona SportBike series in 2014 and in the MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 championship a year later.
Gagne is thrilled to have been offered the chance to make his WorldSBK in front of his home crowd, and hopes to put on a strong showing to honour the late Hayden.
“For me this is a dream come true and a huge honour to get an opportunity to race in the World Superbike Championship with such a prestigious team,” said the double MotoAmerica STK1000 race winner at Laguna.
“This is a huge opportunity and I am going to do the best job possible and learn as much as I can.
“The loss of Nicky was very difficult for all of us, but I know he will be watching over us and I hope I can make him proud.
“Laguna Seca will always be a very special track for him and I’m honoured to get out there in front of our home crowd and show what I can do.
“It seems like a great fit coming off a Honda Superbike here in the States, as well as having Red Bull as the team sponsor, as they have supported me throughout my whole career.
“I would like to express my huge thanks to Honda, Red Bull and Ten Kate for this incredible opportunity.”
At present, it is not known if Honda will retain Gagne for the remaining rounds in Germany, Portugal, France, Spain and Qatar after the summer break.
This weekend’s US round marks the final round before the six-week summer break. Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea leads the standings from team-mate Tom Sykes by 50 points.
