Crucial weekend as WSBK hits Assen
Can Rea fight back? Will Bautista deliver? And what about Toprak?
The Dutch Round of World Superbike always delivers some of the best racing of the season – and that’s in a normal year, let alone this highly unpredictable 2024. Across two rounds and six races in Australia and Spain, four different winners already matches the number for the entire 2023 season. Assen WSBK this weekend is highly significant for so many reasons.
Can Jonathan Rea finally get out of the bunker?
If this was golf, Jonathan Rea has been stuck in the sand so far on his Yamaha journey. On the one hand, it’s early days. On the other, eight points from a possible 124 (with no-scores in five of six races) was certainly not the plan, especially when in Barcelona the six-time champion selected the wrong gear off the line. JR has made errors, Yamaha have made errors. Some say they’re sticking together, others say there’s already tension, but expect a much stronger outing this time. Rea’s 17 wins at the ‘Cathedral of Speed’ is the most for a single rider on any circuit.
VDM wants home podiums
Michael van der Mark is racing at home this weekend in what is the 40th anniversary year of his father,
Henk, winning the Le Mans 24 Hours. Of Michael’s 40 WSBK podiums, seven have come at Assen – including his first two in 2015. Following the heroics of Toprak Razgatlioglu, with two stunning wins in Spain, BMW are riding a tidal wave of optimism. The latest gossip is that the Germans are looking to poach Andrea Iannone from Ducati. Achtung!
Has Alvaro Bautista got his mojo back?
Alvaro Bautista was injured over the winter. That said, he made life easier for rivals by crashing out of Race 1 in Australia then qualifying badly in Barcelona. Once he started from the front row of the final race, he won commandingly. Assen won’t be so easy, as its flowing nature negates some of the advantages of his Ducati. It’s also going to be fascinating to watch the performance of Nicolo Bulega; the Italian, who’s had armpump surgery since Barcelona, has had no pre-event test this time (unlike before Rounds 1 and 2).
Time for brotherly success?
Early in the Barcelona Sprint, Sam and Alex Lowes ran first and second in a World Championship motorcycle race. Alex clinched his first and so far only WSBK pole at Assen back in 2018, while Sam enjoyed a Moto2 podium in 2015. Could the latter seize a first WSBK rostrum this weekend? The former is looking to reel in Bulega, as he’s second overall and 12 points behind.
The Liberty effect…
What about the future of the championship itself? Since the announcement was made that F1’s Liberty Media are buying the majority shareholding of Dorna, which owns MotoGP as well as WSBK, little has been said about World Superbike. MCN understands the Americans intend to keep it, really putting their mark on it from 2025. Unlike racing’s current Spanish bosses, Liberty don’t have that same soft spot for MotoGP and it seems they’ll pour a lot more into WSBK – some fantastic times are ahead! We’ll know more in the paddock this weekend.