This weekend ZX Moto and Evan Brothers Racing take on the historic Cathedral of Speed at Assen in the Netherlands as the next step in their journey towards winning the World Supersport Championship.
After their historic wins at Portimao the whole internet was lit up by the story of Zhang Xue, but let us not forget this is a team effort, not just one man’s dream.
The Protagonists
At the pointy end of the stick are Valentin Debise and Federico Caricasula, the men chosen by Evan Brothers Racing to take on the world.
So far it is Debise who has obviously gelled with the bike fastest, but Federico Caricasula is a class act with a long history and we shouldn’t write off his efforts.
Together with Zhang Xue, Evan brothers, Debise and Caricasula, there are a dedicated team of engineers and mechanics who make all this possible.
For those that don’t know, Evan Brothers have a long history of their own. Here, I will try and illustrate the journey everyone involved here has made.
All involved have just one aim, to win the World Supersport Championship
The story of Evan Brothers Racing begins in 1959 in a small garage shop in Ravenna, where father Umberto handed down his passion for motorcycles to his sons Fabio and Paolo, but it was a long road. At the end of 2012 they decided the future meant investing in young talent, but we have to look at several timelines here.
Because, in 1987 in the rural area of Hunan Province, China, a young man was born, Zhang Xue would go on to become the central character here.
But back at Yamaha headquarters, another genius who was at the cutting edge of the Yamaha design team, was working on their then secret Genesis project development.
He enters the story later and I do talk about him in other videos, but I feel I should introduce him here because this is the period where he was proving his worth.
This was no ordinary engineer, He was a specialist in flow dynamics, and is the named patent holder on the inlet and exhaust system designs and multi valve head technology that Yamaha was developing at the time.
Hiroki Onodera was a pivotal engineer at Yamaha Motor Company, recognised for developing several of the brand’s most iconic engine technologies. He is primarily credited as a central figure in the creation of the Yamaha Genesis engine designs, focussing on maximising engine efficiency and power across the entire RPM range.
He was a lead developer for the “Genesis” concept, first seen in the FZ750. He is listed as a patent inventor for various multi-valve valve-train designs, including Yamaha’s signature 5-valve head, and the EXUP system which used an adjustable exhaust valve in the exhaust to alter back-pressure and improve low-to-mid-range torque without sacrificing top-end horsepower.
His portfolio also includes inventions for an airbox restrictor valve and advanced intake systems designed to improve charging efficiency at low engine speeds, and critical engine architecture, such as camshaft placement and specialised valve actuation methods that allowed for more compact and powerful engine blocks.
Zhang Xue Opens A Repair Shop
It was over ten years later that in 2004, Zhang Xue opened a small motorcycle repair shop aged just 17.
Zhang Xue quickly gained a name for himself after opening the shop, but his passion was racing, and after chasing a local reporter after a less than successful demonstration of a bike he had built, his determination caught their imagination and they published a short film that I can’t feature now as it is being Xuet down by Henan Media with copyright infringement notices. After the film was aired, a local race team decided to give him a chance and he entered his first motocross races.
Not as successful on the track as he had been in the garage, it was suggested by a mentor that he should forget about trying to win himself, but that he should build a bike on which others could win.
His reputation just grew, even becoming known for stripping and rebuilding engines while blindfolded, and by 2009 he had become product development manager at Apollino, a major Chinese manufacturer producing electric dirt bikes, pit bikes, and scooters branded under the Apollo and RFN names.
In 2013, both Zhang Xue and Evan Brothers jumped to the next level.
Zhang Xue developed the Freedom 250X and 300X for Huang He Motors. They became the first EFI bikes built in China and were less than 10,000 Yuan, or under $1,400 dollars to buy.
Evan Brothers Racing
At the same time, Evan Brothers got the chance to participate as a wild card in two rounds of the World Supersport Championship, Imola and Jerez, and in Spain they got their first point with a fifteenth place.
In 2014 a new face made his debut. Federico Caricasulo joined Evan Brothers and took to the challenge in the European Stock 600 championship and the CIV Supersport Championship in Italy. He became Italian champion with a victory and six podiums in the total of ten races. Then, in the European Championship he finished fifth, with two second places.
2015 saw Evan Brothers continue in the Stock 600 Championship, with Caricasulo and Spaniard Augusto Fernandez.
Caricasulo won his first victory, and with four podium finishes, he got third in the championship.
Fernandez also got a win and a second place, finishing just a few points behind his teammate.
In 2016 Evan Brothers made the jump to the World Supersport Championship, they took Caricasulo with them, and Bardahl became the main sponsor of the team.
After a 2nd in the first race at Phillip Island, it was a year of lessons, and the team knew this would be a long haul, but in 2017 they decided to stay in Supersport with Caricasula and Christian Gamarino making up the team.
The season was patchy, but a fastest lap in the Buriram race and sixth place in Portimao gave them hope.
Kove
In that same year, Zhang Xue began the next part of his journey with the Tibet New Summit Motorcycle Company. This is where the Kove story began, but at the start, that name didn’t even exist.
Colove was a brand launched by Zhang and the Tibet New Summit Motorcycle company, and they spent the next few years trying to create something that could take them onto the world stage.
They released models under the Colove and Excelle names as well as others, but eventually it was the Kove name that was patented for the world stage in 2017.
Zhang Xue’s first bike was a 500cc Adventure bike that was lighter than all its competitors, and built around the Loncin version of Honda’s 500cc parallel twin, and simply put, it was just better than the Honda in every way.
This was the start, but his aim was always to build a bike complete with an engine that was built entirely in house.
The 500X quickly became the best selling 250cc plus motorcycle in China, and the company became a roaring success.
World Supersport
Back in the world of Racing, in 2018 Evan Brothers began a new chapter too.
They left Honda and initially signed a two-year deal with Yamaha Switzerland, with Randy Krummenacher as the new star rider.
With a 2nd place in the first race at Phillip Island and an amazing victory in Buriram, the ride of the year was at Assen, where Krummenacher started from last place on the grid to storm through to an unbelievable 2nd place on the podium.
They finished fourth in the championship, steadily getting closer to that podium.
In 2019, for the first time in its history, the Evan Brothers team started the World Supersport Championship with two riders.
A more experienced Federico Caricasulo was confirmed riding alongside Krummenacher. They won 7 races between them with eight double podiums. The team won the team championship and in the last round at Qatar, Krummenacher won the riders’ title, just 6 points ahead of his team mate Caricasula.
Despite the success, 2020 saw a return to a one man team.
Andrea Locatelli, annihilated the opposition from the very first race.
He won the first nine races of the season back to back, and eventually Locatelli won 12 out of 15 races to become the rider with the most successes in a single season ever. He also gave Evan Brothers their second consecutive world title.
2021 saw the arrival of Steven Odendaal, and the South African won the first three races of the year. With 5 victories overall he won the title with a total of eleven podiums.
Hungarian Peter Sebestyen joined the team from the fourth round at Assen, and was confirmed for the 2022 season, racing alongside Lorenzo Baldassarri.
This was Baldassarri’s season. He won race 1 of the first round in Aragon, and in the first seven rounds was on the podium in 12 of the 14 races, taking the title with the kind of dominance not seen often.
2023 was a mess to be brutally honest. Andrea Mantovani didn’t start well and after 7 rounds and an injury, the team and rider had a divorce.
For the rest of the season, Lorenzo de la Porta took over, but results were mixed.
Kove Go To Dakar
But a new era was dawning for Zhang Xue.
Because 2023 was the first year he would take Kove to challenge at both Dakar and the World Supersport 300 championships.
At Dakar a 3 man all Chinese team were headed by Sunier who has been with them ever since. Alongside Sunier was Liansong Deng and Ming ji Fang, and they got all 3 bikes from the factory team to the finish, despite many challenges along the way.
This for many is where the face of Zhang Xue first graced our screens. His tears of anguish and joy showed the world he had passion in abundance and the determination to match.
In that single 2 week period he cemented his place on the motorcycling world stage.
In the World Supersport 300 championships, the first year was all about gathering data.
Julio García González and Kevin Sabatucci entered every round, with Sheng junjie Zhou and Junhao Zhan starting the season, and Spanish rider Marc García joining as a replacement later in the year.
They made consistent progress with a series of top ten results towards the end of the campaign, and in Garcia, they had attracted a rider who showed serious promise.
2024 again started with Dakar. The Kove presence was massive, driven on by Zhang Xue.
Alongside Sunier and rookie Xiangling Feng, Xavier Flick and Neels Theric made up what was effectively a 4 man works Rally 2 team.
You will find more about this story on the website, and there is a full interview with Mason Klein which I will link in the description.
Heroes like Cessarre Zachetti rode the Kove Italia bike in the fabled Malle Moto class and the list of Kove entries was huge. A statement of intent.
But later that year amid the success in the Supersport 300 class, would come a bombshell announcement.
Zhang Xue Resigns From Kove
Zhang Xue was to leave the company he had founded.
Details were sparse at that point, but the rumour was always one about boardroom disagreements.
ZX Moto Are Born
It meant the end of an era, but the beginning of a new one, and it was soon after, that ZX Moto was born.
This is where Hiroki Onodera re enters the scene. He is without doubt an old man now, but as a spiritual leader in a team of design engineers from both China and Japan, I think he will have been invaluable.
Born into an era when Japanese engineering was at its height, and good enough just wasn’t acceptable, he helps to instil in the team a design ethic that Zhang Xue has made possible again.
And let us be real here, since all the patents ran out, every other manufacturer now uses some form of the exhaust valve system that Onodera helped develop at Yamaha, and with Zhang Xue’s engine already built, finding and hiring the man who could get the fuel air mixture in and out faster than anyone else was a master stroke.
Getting the right people to join and buy into his dream, does seem to be another one of Zhang Xue’s skills.
A Racing Spirit
2024 saw more changes for Evan Brothers Racing too, for the first time in its history, they competed in two championships. As well as World SuperSport they contested the womens World Championship with Ana Carrasco.
Carrasco took podium places in every heat and had 4 wins, taking the title in the last round of the season, the third title in the history of Evan Brothers.
In the World SuperSport Championship, Valentin Debise took 7 podium places to claim a 4th final position overall in the championship.
2025 saw the replacement of their multi Championship winning Yamaha R6 with the new R9, and Evan Brothers Racing was rebranded as the Yamaha BLUE CRU Evan Brothers Team, with Can Oncu along with reigning Supersport 300 champion Aldi Mahendra as the riders chosen to fight for the championship.
Oncu had 6 wins, 16 podiums and closed the season in second place. Mahendra was fast, but an injury stopped him from riding the last four rounds, where he was replaced by Alberto Surra.
Surra immediately took to the podium at Magny Cours. And the Yamaha BLUE CRU Evan Brothers Team took the Team World Champion again.
This is why it was such a shock when the news came that Evan Brothers had jumped ship from Yamaha and thrown everything in with a small, new, unknown factory from China.
This shows how much potential Fabio Evangelista saw in the shape of Zhang Xue.
After eight years of partnering with Yamaha, with massive success, the Evan Brothers Racing team decided instead to partner with ZXMOTO, to develop and race their all new 820RR-R inline triple in the 2026 World SuperSport season.
The team went on to announce that veteran Valentin Debise who had been written off by Yamaha as a “has been” along with team favourite Federico Caricasulo, were to ride the new ZXMOTO bikes.
Words From The Boss At Evan Brothers
In a candid interview before the wins at Portimao, Evangelista said,
“We are entering a new chapter with the ZX Moto project. First impressions are good. The bike has great potential, and I think we can achieve results in the short to medium term.
I heard about ZX Moto in September 2024, when I saw the first bike they built, the 500 RR, and I was immediately curious about this new brand created by Zhang.
It was very good and funny when almost one year later, in the middle of August 2025, the team received an invitation to fly to Chongqing to see the new 820 RR model that had just been finished.
Honestly, I was not ready to think about joining this new manufacturer, but I was very curious about them and about this new three-cylinder bike.
I had been there for five days with my engineer, staying in contact with them. I understood day after day that this factory and these people really wanted to join with us.
What was very important for me was that Mr. Zhang, the owner, told me that if he was not able to create this collaboration with us, he didn’t want to start this project in Supersport with anyone else. For us, that was really a proud moment.
So we started planning to stay together, and finally, in EICMA, we signed the contract, and immediately after, the new 820 RR was unveiled officially.”
When asked specifically about Zhang Xue he continued.
“The first meeting with Zhang in his office in Chongqing was really good, and I understood immediately that this fantastic man is really an idol in China.
I had that confirmed during EICMA because the ZX Moto stand was always full of people.
That shows that this new brand and new project created a lot of interest.
My proposal to him was to develop the bike during 2026 to be really ready for the 2027 World Supersport Championship. But Zhang was determined and optimistic about his bike, and he insisted on starting immediately in the 2026 World Supersport Championship.
So we decided to accept, because we understood that the bike was already good enough.
Obviously, I understand that it’s a tough challenge for us. We decided to leave Yamaha for this new challenge and go out of the comfort zone, but this is our way, our mode, and I’m so happy because everyone in the team is very motivated.
After we signed, we had to think about the right riders for this project, especially because the project is a three-year plan to reach our targets.
Valentin is a very precise rider. We thought about him immediately because of our previous relationship in 2024 and because we really think that he can win while improving the bike in the right way.
He is a fantastic rider and a great tester.
Regarding Federico Caricasulo, sometimes I like to say that we created him as a professional rider, because he started with us when he was very young.
Caricasulo added,
“First, I think they are the best, and second, there is friendship. This is the team where I started and where I got my best results. We spent four years together, so for me it was a dream to come back.
We won the Italian Championship immediately in 2014, and in 2016 after we stepped up into the World Supersport, In Australia, we immediately reached the podium with a second place. It was unbelievable.
Evangelista added,
“Having him again with us after ten years is fantastic, and important”.
Valentin Debise said
“I went to Fabio and pushed him to take me. He saw my motivation, and once he talked to me about the motivation of ZX Moto and the whole team, I was convinced from day one that it was the right choice for me.
I had ridden one year with Evan Brothers, and it was the best year of my life, so it was very clear to me that I wanted to go with the team.”
The 2026 World Supersport Championships
The first race of the year at Philip island often throws up wild results and the weekend was a mixed bag for ZX Moto.
There was still much learning to do from the riders and engineers perspective. They had no data for this new bike at all. Plus, it was the first time either rider had ridden the bikes in anger.
Despite some bad luck and crashes, what we did learn is that the bike was fast. There was no doubt about that.
Then came Portimao, and I covered the double win in the previous ZX Moto video so if you haven’t seen it go and take a look. Repeating myself doesn’t add much, but it was a historic double win and there are many insights in the other video.
What will be another massive test will be the races at Assen, the Cathedral of Speed.
Assen is a very different kind of track to most of the circuits on the calender, and corner speed is what will usually win there.
The straights are short, the braking zones hard, and the exit speed of the corners can test the best suspension set ups out there, and remember, ZX Moto have no data for Assen or most of the other circuits.
Evan Brothers have the data from the Yamaha’s, but that can only be one small part of what will be needed to extract the most from the new bike.
Debise sat in 3rd fastest after friday’s free practice, with Caricasula in 16th, less than a second behind his teammate.
And he was 2nd behind the Yamaha of Lucas Mahias in saturdays superpole practice.
The results will be in by the time this is up so we will see how they did.
Regardless of the results, this is still just the start of the season.
Evangelista finished his interview saying,
“My feeling is that finally we are a factory team. I thought that until last year, this wasn’t possible. But now, after ten years of top level racing, I really think we deserve to be considered a top factory team.
With ZX Moto, our feeling is to be part of them, to work all together to reach our goal and the targets we have set.
After a few months, I’m really happy with this choice. With my guys, I’m sure we’ll reach that target. The only question mark is when the dream will come true, when we will win the championship.”
Notice WHEN we win the championship, not if.
So, is this all a match made in heaven?
Can Evan Brothers Racing help take Zhang Xue to the World Supersport Championship title?
It was supposed to be a 5 year plan, but that seems to be a conservative estimate after the wins at Portimao. However, a season can be long, and as they say it is never over until the fat lady sings.
Do you think ZX Moto can win the Championship?
How long do you think it will take?
Let me know in the comments.