Saturday November 19 sees the final road race of 2016 place with the Macau Grand Prix celebrating its 50th anniversary and with a stellar line-up again having been assembled – including five previous winners – it promises to bring the 2016 season to a thrilling conclusion.
Heading the entry is last year’s winner Peter Hickman, the Lincolnshire-based rider having put in a stunning performance 12 months ago on the Briggs Equipment BMW. A late change in teams and machinery sees him back on BMW this year, riding for the SMT Racing/Bathams team where he’s joined by two rapid team-mates in Michael Rutter and Stuart Easton.
Rutter is the undoubted ‘King of Macau’ with a record eight wins and 16 podiums to his name and although it was 2012 when he last won, he was third last year and the form he’s shown throughout 2016 both on the roads and in the National Superstock 1000 Championship means he’s certainly amongst the pre-race favourites.
Third team member Easton has had a year to forget on the short circuits in the BSB series but with four previous wins to his name at Macau, including three in a row between 2008 and 2010, he cannot be ruled out. A successful debut outing on the BMW at Darley Moor last month shows he’s a potential race winner.
The same applies to Ian Hutchinson who took the honours at Macau in fairytale fashion in 2013. His season has been nothing short of superb and, arguably, the smart money will be on him and Hickman in terms of the race win. On board his regular Tyco BMW, Hutchy will be keen to maintain his 2016 run of standing on the podium in all of the International road races he’s finished.
The fifth former race winner on the entry is John McGuinness, the Morecambe Missile having tasted victory all the way back in 2001. An outside bet for the race win on this occasion, McGuinness will be back on board his Honda Racing Fireblade and will certainly be challenging for a podium as will his team-mate Conor Cummins, the Manxman’s solitary Macau podium coming in 2009 when he took a close second behind Easton.
Although not a former race winner, Martin Jessopp will again be in the mix this year and after four previous podiums, including second place in 2011, 2012 and again last year, he’ll once more be gunning for that elusive win on the Riders Motorcycles BMW.
Also BMW mounted are the Penz13.com by MGM & Special Olympics Macau duo of Gary Johnson and Danny Webb. Their Macau experience couldn’t be more different though with Johnson, third in 2013, making his ninth appearance and Webb making his debut.
Regular road racing front runners Dan Kneen (Mar-Train Racing Yamaha), Steve Mercer (Briggs Equipment BMW), Ivan Lintin (Devitt RC Express Racing Kawasaki) and Derek Sheils (Cookstown BE racing Suzuki) are just a few of the other names on the entry where they’re joined by circuit newcomer and TT Privateer’s Champion Dan Hegarty (Special Olympics Project Kawasaki by Nature Power).
The highest profile newcomer though is this year’s leading rookie in the BSB Championship – Glenn Irwin. Having previously excelled on Supersport machines at the North West 200 and Ulster Grand Prix, the ever cheerful Irwin will be on his usual Be Wiser Ducati mount and a lot of eyes will be keenly watching his progress.
Austrian Horst Saiger (Saiger Racing Kawasaki), German Didier Grams (Heidger Motorsport BMW) and American Mark Miller (Splitlath EBR Buell) should again be the leading overseas riders and there’ll be joined by Portugal’s Andre Pires (Bimota) and IRRC Supersport Champion and Grams’ team-mate Marek Cerveny, the Czech Republic rider another circuit debutante.
Dan Cooper, Ben Wylie, AJ Venter, Steve Heneghan, Sam West, Michael Sweeney, Davy Morgan and Brian McCormack complete the 28-strong grid.
