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WorldSBK<br />
KAWASAKI:<br />
REA OUT FOR SIX,<br />
LOWES OUT TO<br />
SURPRISE<br />
2019 was the best we’ve seen from Rea. To<br />
win that title meant giving everything he had.<br />
Can he go to the well again in 2020?<br />
Jonathan Rea was a heavyweight boxer in<br />
2019 but as he juked it out with Alvaro Bautista<br />
for the title it was more about rolling with<br />
the punches rather than landing a knockout<br />
blow. It was Rea’s best championship but also<br />
showed how easy it can be to lose his grip at<br />
the top. Getting the job done showed that he<br />
is still the man to beat but also that the competition<br />
is closing in.<br />
The Ducati V4R was a game changer in 2019<br />
and it will only get stronger. Kawasaki are back<br />
with the same bike as twelve months ago and<br />
as the ZX10RR gets longer in the tooth, the<br />
odds for Rea extend too. That he was able to<br />
weather the storm and come out on top shows<br />
that you underestimate the five times world<br />
champion at your peril...but it’s the chinks<br />
in the armour that his rivals will focus upon.<br />
Winning is hard but to keep winning is even<br />
harder. Look around the sporting world and<br />
there’s countless examples of this but Rea was<br />
so relentless last year once momentum shifted<br />
his way. He was a pitbull backed into a corner<br />
after four rounds and he came out with only<br />
one intention; to put everyone in their place.<br />
Let’s see if he has the same fight in 2020.<br />
<strong>On</strong> the other side of the Kawasaki garage Alex<br />
Lowes joins from Yamaha. Being the teammate<br />
to Jonathan Rea is a thankless task; he’s the<br />
greatest Superbike rider of all-time. Rea never<br />
gives an inch. Who’d want to be compared to<br />
that? After spending three years as teammate<br />
to Michael van der Mark and having grown up<br />
with an incredibly competitive sibling rivalry,<br />
Lowes is arguably the best placed rider in the<br />
world to slip into the second Kawasaki berth.<br />
He won’t be fazed by days when Rea beats him<br />
and he won’t get carried away if he comes out<br />
on top. He knows that world class racers all<br />
have their days and that it’s about the<br />
balance of 39 days of on track action throughout<br />
a season.
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