The Superbike World Championship is becoming an ideal place for ex-MotoGP racers to rekindle their careers once unable to secure top-level equipment in grands prix. This year we saw 2006 MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden make the transition and next year there will be even more, so in this month’s Countdown, we assess six riders that spent a full term in GPs prior to winning WorldSBK crowns.

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6. Troy Corser (2005):
It was way back in 1996 that Troy Corser took out his first WorldSBK crown, before spring-boarding to 500GPs in 1997. That was an ill-fated attempt at grand prix racing aboard a YZR-500, so the following year he was back in Superbikes. Like Bayliss, Corser is regarded as a Superbike hero and went on to claim the 2005 crown aboard a Suzuki well after his grand prix days were over.

5. Troy Bayliss (2006):
Let’s face it, Troy Bayliss was already a WorldSBK champion in 2001 before he moved to MotoGP in 2003 to spend three full seasons in grands prix. It was when he returned to Superbikes in 2006 however when he racked up his second (2006) and third (2008) world championships prior to retiring. He’ll be remembered as a WorldSBK legend though, even grabbing his lone GP win as a wildcard at Valencia in 2006 after his fulltime grand prix career ended.

4. Sylvain Guintoli (2014):
Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli was one of the more lower profile grand prix riders who eventually switched to Superbikes and went on to win a world championship. He raced 250GP between 2001 and 2006, the raced MotoGP in 2007 and 2008. After that he went to the British championship in 2009, then transferred to WorldSBK in 2010. His long road to the title resulted in a 2014 championship with Aprilia, however success has been limited since.

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3. John Kocinski (1997):
One of the most polarising characters in the history of the sport, John Kocinski was a heck of a rider. Winner of the 250GP title in 1990, JK then spent 1991-1994 in the 500GPs (with a part-season back in 250s during 1993). He took a year out in 1995, but upon return entered WorldSBK, going on to win the championship with Castrol Honda in 1997. The enabled him to head back to grand prix racing for a couple of more seasons before he went back to the US and then later exited the sport for good, now believed to be in real estate in Beverly Hills.

2. Carlos Checa (2011):
With a grand prix career that spanned a full 15 years – 12 of them in the premier class – Carlos Checa is one of the most travelled racers the sport’s seen. Once he switched to Honda in WorldSBK for 2008, he went on to contest six more seasons in the world championship! Checa’s lone championship finally came in 2011 when he dominated the series for Althea Racing Ducati, cementing him as a champion in the sport once and for all.

1. Max Biaggi (2010/2012):
Between 1994 and 1997, the ‘Roman Emperor’ Max Biaggi ruled 250 grand prix racing and then remarkably won his first 500GP on debut in 1998 with Kanemoto Honda. So from then he remained at the pinnacle of the sport riding for Yamaha and Honda’s factory teams along the way, but ultimately switched to WorldSBK in 2007 following a season on the sidelines. Biaggi won his first Superbike crown in 2010 with Aprilia Racing, then won again in 2012 before retiring from fulltime competition.