Superbikes come alive in Australia
The 2020 Superbike World Championship kicked off at Australia’s Phillip Island circuit this weekend, with three close and exciting races suggesting that this year’s championship will be wide open.
The fast and flowing Australian circuit always promotes great racing, but this year’s openers featured a different winner in each of the three races, with up to 10 riders battling it out for the podium places.
BMW’s Tom Sykes headed an all-British front row after topping the times in qualifying, and the Superpole specialist was right in the thick of things straight away as he clashed with world champion Jonathan Rea on the first lap. The incident saw Rea shuffled to the back of the pack, but the Carole Nash-backed was unfortunate to crash out as he charged through the pack on lap six, shortly after setting the fastest lap of the race.
In Rea’s absence, Sykes continued to lead but was left to rue choosing a different rear tyre compound to his competitors as he ran out of grip midway through the 22 lap race and slipped back to ninth at the finish.
Sykes’ demise left a four-way battle for the win, with British champion Scott Redding battling with the Yamahas of Michael van der Mark and Toprak Razgatlioglu, as well as Alex Lowes on his Kawasaki debut. In the end it was a four way drag to the line, with 0.137 seconds between the quartet at the flag: Razgatlioglu taking the win from Lowes and Redding.
Sunday morning’s Superpole race saw Rea back it his brilliant best, leading out in the 10-lap sprint to take the honours from Razgatlioglu and Redding, before and another 22-lap classic in the afternoon race.
Contested by the same four protagonists as Saturday’s race, plus Rea and Loris Baz on his independently entered Ten Kate Yamaha YZF-R1, another stunner was served up. Once again Rea and his Kawasaki ZX-10RR led for most of the way but the Northern Irish rider was unable to make a breakaway. Baz’s hope of a third World Superbike win, his last coming in 2013, were dashed when Razgatlioglu’s R1 broke down directly in front of him on lap 20. Frenchman Baz took to the grass and finished six seconds back in eighth, while the Turk retired from the race with a technical problem.
The race to the line saw Lowes pip his new Kawasaki team-mate Rea by just 0.037 seconds, with Redding completing his trio of third places a few metres behind. Speaking after the race, his second career win, Lowes said: “I feel fantastic. It’s been a great first weekend with the team. The race was tricky because the temperatures were so high, it made the grip quite low. But I really enjoyed it! I needed to be patient all throughout the race because people were banging into me, hitting me wide. Baz hit me a few times, then Toprak, then Michael. Fun racing but it was hard to find a rhythm, I was back in eighth then Baz came past me, Alvaro (Bautista) came past me. All the time I felt quite strong on the bike. I was focussed on being smooth, looking after the tyre and coming forward at the end. The plan paid off, it doesn’t always happen like that. Really happy to get my first win with Kawasaki Racing Team, I’m going to enjoy it tonight, before recharging my batteries for Qatar.”
Rea was relatively happy after his mixed weekend, adding: “Race two was strange because I didn’t do 22 laps yesterday, so I didn’t know what to expect from the tyre in the race. We had done 22 laps on a tyre during the tests but never in one stint and with this high track temperature. I was riding so slowly at the front and doing all the work but it seemed like no-one wanted to come through and do the work. The guys behind me could all manage their tyres better than me and they had the slipstream. Last year we were 15 seconds from the race win so I feel more competitive now. We could have given up a lot of points this weekend after a 220kmph crash in race one but I was able to walk away relatively unhurt. I’m looking forward to Qatar because today we did the best that we could.”
Despite massive experience in all three MotoGP classes, as well as a title winning season in British superbikes, the Phillip Island race marked Redding’s debut in the world superbike series. “I’ve been on the podium three times, on two occasions I finished within a tenth of a second off the winner: not bad for my first Superbike weekend,” he added. “I gave it everything that I had but my biggest problem was trying to manage the front tyre in the races. We were strong and the bike worked well. We need to improve in some small areas but we’re in the battle for the win. We’re only a tenth off the win here and that’s not bad going, but I was struggling in race two with the tyre temperature. I learned so much this weekend and that’s the biggest thing. I’m satisfied and confident after this weekend because I held my own this weekend and that’s what was important.”
The thrilling opening round sees Lowes leave Australia in the championship lead, 12 points ahead of Redding, who has 39 points, with Razgatlioglu, Rea and Van der Mark all within eight points of the second placed Ducati rider.
With a number of other race winners, including Chaz Davies, Sykes and Honda riders Leon Haslam and Alvaro Bautista all looking competitive at Phillip Island, there’s every chance this year’s series could be the most competitive ever.
After a weekend off, the series is scheduled to continue in Qatar on the weekend of 13-15 March.
