American PJ Jacobsen will step up from World Supersport to the World Superbike Championship in 2018 with the TripleM Honda team.
After a season in the British Superbike Championship with Tyco Suzuki, Jacobsen stepped over to WorldSSP on a Kawasaki before switching to Honda machinery halfway through 2015 – which he took to two wins and runner-up spot in the standings.
Jacobsen moved to MV Agusta for 2017 and finished the year sixth in the championship with 108 points, with a best result of third at Aragon, Imola and Magny-Cours.
Earlier in the month, Superstock outfit TripleM announced it was stepping up to WorldSBK as a factory-backed satellite Honda effort, with Jacobsen strongly linked to the squad.
The American is thrilled to have been offered the chance to make his debut in WorldSBK, and is keen to ride the new Fireblade having ridden the previous model in the Endurance World Championship in 2015.
“I’m very excited to be making my World Superbike debut with TripleM Honda WSBK Team,” he said.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to be finally racing in this class and I want to thank the team and Honda for making this possible.
“Both the team and I will be rookies in the WorldSBK Championship, so there will surely be a lot to learn, but it’s a challenge that stimulated me and I can’t wait to get started.
“I enjoyed racing the Fireblade in the EWC two years go and I love riding 1000cc bikes, so I’m looking forward to trying the new Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2.”
Honda WorldSBK operations manager Marco Chini added: “We’re happy to welcome back PJ in the Honda family.
“He’s a young and very talented rider who has a good amount of experience across different championships, so it will be good to see him riding the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 in World Superbike.
“I reckon the TripleM Honda WSBK Team is the perfect fit for him because they can learn and grow together in the series during their first year.
“We look forward to seeing PJ out on track in Honda colours again.”
