Billionaire Li Shufu, owner and chairman of Geely Auto, China’s second-largest carmaker, plans to bring the Superbike World Championship (WSBK) to the country, banking on the success of a home-grown motorcycle brand in competition.

The move marked Geely’s latest step to sharpen its image as an international marque with advanced technologies and new models, according to analysts.

Li and Zhang Xue, owner of ZXMOTO, agreed to jointly promote China’s hosting of the WSBK during their appearance on the Dialogue talk show on China Central Television, Geely said in a statement to the South China Morning Post on Tuesday.

“We are both Chinese companies, whether it is a maker of cars or motorcycles,” Li said on the programme. “We are happy to see China achieve results in world-class motorsport competitions.”

The WSBK pits modified versions of road-legal production motorcycles against each other across three classes – WorldSBK, WorldSSP and WorldSPB. ZXMOTO is competing in the middle-tier WorldSSP category.

Widely regarded as the premier production-based motorcycle racing series globally, the WSBK has long been dominated by European and Japanese manufacturers.