The waiting is finally over!

The start of a new motorcycle racing season is but hours away with the opening round of the 2024 WorldSBK Championship heralding the starting pistol for months of glorious motorcycle racing action both at home and overseas.

While we wait for MotoGP, BSB and the Road Racing campaign to make their first race laps, Round 1 of the 2024 WorldSBK season at the fabulous Phillip Island should be enough to whet the appetite with plenty of intrigue afoot from team changes, new rules and incoming riders.

There is just so much to sift through... and who better to guide us through those predictions than your friend and mine, James Whitham. Without further ado, take it away our James...

BSN

So WorldSBK is going to be very exciting this year but of course the controversial thing is why it is turning out rather like horse racing, when all the jockeys are weighed… it’s going to be a bit like the Grand National. It seems to me to be ludicrous quite frankly. What do you think of it?

James Whitham

I think it seems to be coming whether I like it or not. I don’t think on the big bikes it’s ever been a sort of feature that you would think makes that much difference. Given that they were never going to ballast the lightest riders so the whole bike and rider has as much weight as the heavies so they were never going to do that. 

They’ve worked it out by taking a reference rider of 80kgs, with kit, and then if you’re less than that they ballast half the amount. So the way I work it out, I don’t know how much has been published, but (Alvaro) Bautista carries about 4-4.5kgs, if they don’t put the 4.5 kilos where you want them that isn’t a lot of weight. I don’t think that’s what’s making the difference to Bautista at the minute. I think there’s other things I think he’s complained about. 

But 4.5 kilos on a bike when you can put it low and central isn’t going to make a lot of difference. Bearing in mind that the fuel load has gone down to 21 litres instead of 24 litres, is 2.5 kilos of weight that they carry anyway. 

I know everybody gets that but a bike will use perhaps fifteen kilos of weight in fuel every race and nobody complains that the bike is unrideable at the beginning of the race. At the end is sort of fifteen kilos the bike uses in the race so I don’t think the weight is the big difference at the minute. 

There are other things which Bautista is struggling with, he says as much as that. I think he’s going to be there in the race. 

Phillip Island never been too indicative to the rest of the season, it’s not always a good benchmark for what’s going to happen for the rest of the year, so I still think for me, I’m sticking to my prediction of the usual suspects. 

BSN

Before you get on to that, isn’t it somewhat unfair that because young lad or lady is born kind of small but also keeps fit and they get handicapped because they’re born that way and they keep pretty fit. It’s unfair isn’t it?

JW

I think that they’re getting penalised a little bit. I don’t think it will make a difference. I think on the smaller classes the Moto3, where they’ve added combined weight bike/rider minimum limit, fair enough.

If you’ve got a bike that produced 50bhp, then six or seven kilos is a lot of difference. I think a bike that starts off at over 160-170bhp is the limit - four and a half kilos is neither here nor there, you’re not going to be able to ballast more than that. 

You could say that you were born seven foot tall, you’d have a lot better go at a game like basketball. Someone who is born 5ft 4in in the first place but they’ve never said that the 5ft 4in person could wear stilts while playing basketball. 

The seven foot player has to run around… that’s just natural. You could look at it both ways. For me it isn’t going to make a difference if you did anyway.

BSN

Despite all of the hoo-hah, it isn’t going to make any difference at all really. 

JW

I don’t think it’s going to make a difference once the season gets going. I actually don’t think it’s the difference. Bautista seems to be performing well at the minute and I do think he’s going to be there in the races.

BSN

You’ve ridden at Phillip Island haven’t you. It’s one hell of a good circuit isn’t it?

JW

It’s an absolutely fantastic circuit. It’s just a lovely, lovely circuit. It’s a little bit up and down, it’s a little bit kind of flowy. It’s also in a beautiful part of the world and people like it. It’s lovely to go watch, it’s one of those circuits that’s universally liked by everybody and that’s the team, the riders and the punters. 

BSN

The line-up this year looks very very exciting and of course you might say that Toprak Razgatlioglu and Bautista are going to be the two vying for the lead. Then you’ve got Jonathan Rea coming in on the Yamaha and they might make it more competitive than you think.

JW

I think you’ve got a point. I still think that my money’s going to be the bike to beat last year. Toprak’s tested really well on the BMW. I still think he’s the best rider in terms of natural talent, you’re not gonna change my mind on that. 

I’ve done a couple of pre-season prediction pieces and I still think over the season that Bautista is going to be the man to beat. 

However I did say that my wild card for some decent results and a good run is Nicolo Bulega and I stand by that. I think he’s exceptionally quick and he’s as good as anything else out there, plus he’s determined to the point that he looks angry every time you see him. 

He’s a determined kid and I think he’s got a lot of talent. In some ways, I think Bulega is going to be good. 

I really hope that Sam Lowes goes well. The man who seems to be struggling at the minute is Jonathan Rea, but I just think it’s too early to write him off.

BSN

The Lowes brothers will be competing against each other as well…

JW

First time in a long time, since British Supersport they briefly raced against each other - it will be really interesting. 

BSN

Give us your top three then, James

JW

Really, really difficult. Bearing in mind there’s a compulsory tyre stop so that might alter things and they’ve resurfaced it again. It is not just that, Phillip Island has always been hard on tyres, it’s a left handed circuit. There’s lots and lots of corners that are powering round and it gives the tyres a lot of stick. It always has and it’s not just Pirelli, every manufacturer has had issues with it in the past.

But! Who am I going to go for? I am going to go for Bautista, I’m sticking with that, Toprak and Bulega. But can’t rule out (Danilo) Petrucci, he looks good, nor someone like (Michael Ruben) Rinaldi, plus Alex (Lowes)... there’s lots of people that could do well. But that’s what I’d go for. It’s difficult.

BSN

One last line, what about Johnny Rea. It’s a new bike, he’ll take a bit of getting used to. He’s fallen off once or twice…

JW

I think he’ll be top five and I wouldn’t write him off over the season, he’s an intelligent bloke. He’s still got a fire in his belly and like I said, sometimes it’s not indicative when we go away from Phillip Island…