Thailand Planet Superbike Preview: Green with Envy

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The second round of the Superbike Planet Championship will take place this weekend in Thailand, and although Jonathan Rea has began the year in terrific kind there’s lots of explanation for optimism along the pit lane.

Thailand will offer you a accurate indication of what to expect this year in WorldSBK and even though it’s unlikely we’ll see the very same quantity of bikes fighting for the win, it’s most likely that the scrap at the front will be just as competitive.

Rome wasn’t constructed in a day and championships are not won on the opening weekend of the season, but in Australia Jonathan Rea put down a marker to the field that showed that he will not relinquish his Globe Superbike title with no a fight.

Rea claimed a double victory at Phillip Island that was as measured and controlled as anticipated from the reigning champion. Even so the Northern Irishman had to fight off a spirited challenge to spray the Proseco from the best step.

Chaz Davies and Michael van der Mark forced the Kawasaki rider to dig deep in both races, and even even though each successes came down to the final lap, there was a continuous feeling that Rea was riding with more of a comfort level than his rivals.

Getting that added speed in hand when needed has been the hallmark to plenty of champions in the previous, and the while none of his rivals openly bemoaned the speed of the Kawasaki, some privately lamented about the straight line speed of Rea’s bike.

In each races it seemed that even though the Ducati and Honda riders could match laptimes with Rea they necessary that an additional effort in comparison.

The Kawasaki ZX-10R still the fastest bike in a straight line, as completely illustrated by Rea’s race winning move in Race 2, and it is the most comprehensive package on the grid. The performances of the machines are closer compared to final year, but in terms of overall performance the green bikes nevertheless hold an edge.

Ominously for the rest of the field Rea feels that he is just scratching the potential of the bike at this point.

“I really feel like we’re operating at about 85-90 % possible of the bike,” said Rea. “I’m genuinely proud to give Kawasaki these two wins. It’s the very first time with the new bike. We hear so considerably noise about other folks obtaining new bikes. This is a new chassis, new bike, new engine. A massive change from last year, which is how we attacked the winter. We had so numerous components to analyse.”

“Finally to get right here just shows the strength of Kawasaki and the strength of the team behind me. There are so numerous people involved behind the scenes that have got the bike right here. I’m just so grateful to be involved with a factory like Kawasaki.”

Chaz Davies after once more looks to be the most likely rider to compete with Rea over the course of the season but this weekend’s race at the Chang International Circuit will be an important barometer of what to expect from the Welshman this year.

Crashing out of both races left Davies with a mountain to climb in the championship and he spent the rest of the season trying in vain to get back on level footing in the standings.

This year he’ll travel to Thailand feeling bullish about his possibilities. With the base setting of his Ducati getting been, for the most part, set in stone because the middle of final year Davies has steadily grown in self-confidence.

Regardless of this, in Australia he struggled mightily on Friday and certified on the third row, but identified a answer in time for the race and need to have claimed two podiums.

If his base setting functions from the outset in Chang, Davies will be really confident of being in a position to fight with Rea. The Ducati is nevertheless brief of prime finish speed but it is now a manageable deficiency, and not the chasm in functionality that we saw in the previous – even though it was clear soon after Australia that Davies is hunting for much more energy from the Panigale.

“I’m not disappointed with the way I rode,” stated Davies right after crashing in Race 2 and remounting to finish tenth. “I felt like we’ve moved on from last year. Our electronics package is working very good and in basic I’m extremely pleased with the bike. We just missed that last bit. We want to take home race wins and I believe it is pretty straightforward to see what that final bit is.”

Honda was competitive in Phillip Island, but until Michael van der Mark and Nicky Hayden prove to be competitive at other circuits, the jury will be out about their prospective for this season.

The Fireblade has found efficiency, group insiders revealed that they had discovered 10bhp over the winter, but it remains to be noticed if this will bring them closer to the front in races this year. Chang will be an perfect chance to gauge their possible for this year.

With Kawasaki, Ducati, Honda, and Yamaha all scraping for the lead group, Australia showed us that this could be an epic year for Planet Superbikes but it’s also critical to bear in mind that the Phillip Island promotes close racing.

As a result it will only be in the coming rounds, probably when we get back to Europe, exactly where we will see a genuine image commence to create. Australia was a window into the season, but the curtains haven’t been fully drawn but, and this weekend will commence to supply a larger view of what to anticipate.