McGUINNESS
‘Ducati are insane, I love what they have done’
There’s been a lot of good news for World Superbikes over the winter, I hope it’s what the series needs to get everyone excited again. I also hope this is the year that someone gives Johnny Rea a bit of a shake-up and makes him work a bit harder.
He’s going for his fifth title, which nobody has ever done, so it’d be great to see him do it but I want to see him battle for it. If you follow him on social media you’ll know he’s been putting the work in with his motocross and
‘HE WAS MORE FUN ON THE OLD TEN KATE BIKE. HE WAS WILD’
stuff. He’ll be gunning for it, he’s still hungry.
Rea is a fantastic rider but the series hasn’t been exciting enough because he just clears off. I actually found him more interesting to watch on the Ten Kate bike. He was wild. I hope the new stuff for this year means he has a fight on his hands, but I would still love to see him win. Ducati are insane and I love what they’ve done. They wheel out this new 230bhp V4 with wings, it revs to 16,000rpm. It’s a MotoGP bike and somehow they’ve made it OK to race in WSB. I saw the V4 R at Brands Hatch and thought ‘what on earth is that?’ Their man Bautista will ruffle feathers, I don’t know if he’ll be championship material though. Chaz Davies is a bloody solid racer and he’s hungry. It’ll be interesting to see Sykes on the BMW as he’s been in a bit of a rut with the Kawasaki so this might be the kick up the arse he needs. It’s time for Yamaha to up their game, too.
Even HRC are back in the mix for the first time in a long old while. When HRC put their mind to something they turn out some special stuff, so that could be interesting because the Fireblade needs turning around.