This being an unusual
WorldSBK season in many ways
already, the appearance of the
unique Bimota KB998 Rimini
WorldSBK bike at Phillip Island
was just another distraction to
point your overworked central
nervous system at.
Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani
(Bimota by Kawasaki Racing
Team) were eighth and ninth,
respectively, in race one. Lowes
got closer later in the weekend
with a Superpole-race seventh,
and both new "Bim" bikes deliv
-
ered top 10 results in each race.
Honda
was (relatively speak-
ing) nowhere as usual, with Iker
Lecuona
injured once again and
declared unfit.
Yamaha was emotionally
hurting from the lack of their
recently injured superstar, Jona
-
than Rea, but Andrea Locatelli
(Pata
Maxus Yamaha) put up a
good fight to be the top non-
WorldSBK at Phillip Island is
often an outlier in terms of results
and is often not a reliable sooth-
sayer for how the full WorldSBK
season
will really turn out.
But nobody sees the eight
(count 'em—eight Ducati Pani-
gale V4 Rs) Ducati riders from
doing anything but
dominating
this year. Unless, of course,
Dorna/FIM pull out this year's
big balancing rule blunderbuss
after the mandatory two-round
performance checkpoint and
throttle back the maximum fuel
flow rate from the same-for-
all 47kg/hour starting point to
something less generous for
Ducati.
Scott Redding (MGM Bonovo
Racing Ducati) and Sam Lowes
(Elf Marc VDS Racing Team
Ducati)—who had their best
rides in WorldSBK in ages, and
in Lowes' case, his best ever of
fifth in the Superpole race.
Even rookie rider Yari Mon-
tella (Barni Spark Racing Ducati)
had
an eighth place in the Su-
perpole race during his first-ever
WorldSBK
weekend.
VOLUME 62 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 25, 2025 P81
(Left) Toprak Razgatlioglu (1) gets
it all wrong going into Miller Corner
in the Superpole race. He saved it
but still ran off the track. (Above)
Alex Lowes and the new Bimota
made a good showing with a trio
of top 10 placings.
