At last the 2015 World Superbike season gets underway… Who will fire the first shot? PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
With all the testing done and track action about to start in earnest at Phillip Island, some of the top competitors in World Superbike racing gave their opinions of how it should go for them at the season opener and the championship in general.
Top rider of all in 2014 Sylvain Guintoli, now riding for Pata Honda, is still recovering from a huge crash that ruined his Jerez testing plans, but warned not to count him out.
“The crash I had was a big one, and I could have done without landing on my face but I am recovering quite well,” said Guintoli. “There are no fractures and I am feeling a bit better so I think I will be all right for this weekend. We have been rebuilding confidence in the last two days of testing. There is never enough winter testing, but we now start pushing a little bit more and get more speed for the weekend. I think we can do it and it is only a matter of adapting to the bike and adapting the bike to me so we can be competitive. If you look at last year I only did about ten laps of winter testing because of a double surgery on my shoulder, but I still won it [race two]. I was still about 12th in the tests before the race. So what I am saying is that I do not put too much stress on myself with the lap time. It is only on the race weekend that you score points, take money.”
Pre-season favorite Jonathan Rea (according to all the bookmakers) embarks on what will be his first season with KRT (Kawasaki Racing Team).
“I have found a really good new home and my bike is at a really, really good level,” Said Rea. “We have put the two days testing to good use and I am still ‘young’ on my bike. We have a toolbox full of tools that we keep trying to explore to have a really good feeling. From the very first laps on the Ninja ZX-10R it is quite easy to see that the bike is working in quite a good window. Now it is trying to find the optimum set-up for me. Also in this circuit, trying to keep behind the tire performance at the end of the race. Sometimes you cannot achieve the best feeling and set-up and also maintain a great tire grip for 22-laps.”
Rea’s chomping at the bit to get the season underway and getting a podium finish for the first time at Phillip Island for his new team would be icing on the cake.
“I am filled with nervous excitement right now, and it has been a long time coming for race one for me,” Rea said. “I have never scored a podium here and it mystifies me. Not that I am expecting to be on the podium on every circuit, but I love this circuit, it is one of my all-time favorites, and I spend most of my Aussie summers in the little town in Cowes with my little son and my wife and her parents. It would mean a lot to me to at least be able to stand on the box this weekend, but we have a lot of work to do before then. The level of competition this year is really high and we will just try to keep our noses clean and do the work that we can do with our bike. The podium has eluded me so far so we will have to see.”
The fastest man in recent Phillip Island testing—Voltcom Crescent Suzuki’s Alex Lowes—is one of the few top riders who was on the same team as last year, and may well find his machine closer to the previously much faster Kawasakis and Aprilias in 2015.
“Testing is one thing and we did a decent job,” said Lowes of heading up the timesheets after two days at PI. “ I think I was fast in testing last year and obviously in the races I crashed in practice and didn’t do very well. I have had a different approach this year, a bit calmer. We worked quite hard in the test, but it is always different in race weekend so I am not going to get ahead of myself. All of the guys have done a good job and some of them have changed teams, so it is always very exciting coming to the first race. I feel all right, I feel the best I have ever done in terms of my riding. I will concentrate on my first practice session and hopefully do all right there and then go from there for the weekend.”
And as Lowes pointed out, the track bit him last year, but it’s a track that he feels suits him and his Suzuki.
“This track seems to suit the characteristics of the bike,” Lowes said. “There are some fast corners which we are normally pretty good around. Last year the out-and-out speed was not as strong, but the bike seems really good on tires and at this place the last five laps is where you win and lose races and that was proved the case last year with Eugene Laverty. Also we seemed to be doing a pretty good job in tires in the test. I think that is why we race quite well, but Eugene did well in the races. It does seem to suit the bike and I think it suits me as well. There are also a lot of other guys who are strong and I do not expect to beat those guys every week, but if we can do a good job when the bike is good enough I will be happy with that.”
Rookie Jordi Torres on the Red Devils Roma Aprillia has already impressed in his first Aprilia rides for the new style factory team, as he moves on from Moto2.
“I am happy to be in Superbike,” Torres said. “The people are fun, are nice and my team is the best. They won the championship last year and have a nice bike. This is good for me to learn a lot of things. I do not know yet about two races per day, but I need to learn a lot about the qualifying tires, the starts, my rivals… So to make two races per day is better for knowing the bike and the settings, the durability of the tires. So it is good to make two races in the same day.”
For many in World Superbike, Chaz Davies will be the first man to make the Panigale win in the class, and Davies knows he is in a better position now than he has been for a long time.
“This is the first time that I have remained with the same team and in November and December I have been staying in the same ‘ home’ pretty much,” said Davies pre-race. “It is a welcome change for me. It is the first time in 10 years I have had that, so I think I am owed it. It has been a smooth winter and I have been working on introducing quite a few new parts to the bike and bring the Panigale forward and turn it into a race-winning machine.
“Time to rumble, I suppose. To take the first Panigale win would be huge. It would be a huge honor to be able to do that, but you have to be able to take baby steps towards that and last year we learned a lot. At times we came reasonably close… and whether that happens now or at some point during the season it is just something to work towards. We are not hell-bent on chasing that first victory we have got to put together a consistent season, and hopefully be in with a shout at the end of it.”
