French youngster Florian Marino celebrated the Xmas period in the best possible way by reaching an agreement with the Ten Kate Honda team to take part in this year's Supersport World Championship. One of the top riders in European Superstock 600 in 2010, Marino went to the Dutch team's headquarters a couple of days after Christmas to sign the contract with the most successful team in the category. Marino made his Supersport debut in the final round of last season at Magny-Cours, where only a harmless crash prevented him from scoring a top 6 finish.

"Who said that Santa Claus is a stinker?!!! Not me!" joked Florian on his website. "On December 27 I signed a two-year contract to race in Supersport 600 with Ten Kate... thank you Ronald and Gerrit Ten Kate for opening the doors to the world championship. It was hard for them to find funding during these times of crisis and convince the investors to gamble on me, but I will not disappoint them. I am joining the most prestigious team in World Superbike, 9 times world champion, two of those with French riders... you know what they say... everything comes in threes!"

Marino's first official shakedown with the team's CBR will be on January 20-21 for private testing at the Aragon track in Spain followed a week later with 3 days during the first official Infront test at the Portimao circuit in Portugal.