Kawasaki prepared to manage prospect of Rea, Lowes inter-team battle

Kawasaki Racing boss Guim Roda says the team is prepared for the prospect of an inter-team fight for supremacy between Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes following the newcomer’s race-winning start to the season in Australia.

Joining Kawasaki ahead of the 2020 WorldSBK season after five years with Yamaha, Lowes’ enjoyed a stellar start to life in ‘green’ with a victory at Phillip Island back at the start of March.

Moreover, the win was achieved by prevailing in a thrilling final lap duel with team-mate and five-time WorldSBK champion Rea, giving rise to the prospect of a close fight between the pair when racing does eventually resume post-coronavirus.

It is a premise KRT manager Roda is well versed in, having overseen an occasionally fractious relationship in the past between team-mates Tom Sykes and Rea, but he says he will delegate responsibility to the riders and ensure they understand the implications to taking too much of a risk around each other.

“We have two riders who have the potential to win, something that we accept. We just need to manage the responsibility of both. When they need to fight on track, they just need to take care about making mistakes because the consequences are worse for the team.

“When teammates need to fight each other to win races then the risk for the team is higher, but it’s something that the team accepts.

“We need to understand the riders’ motivation is always the team interest, the manufacturer interest. We try to explain that they have to be responsible but I think they more than understand. They put the risk on the limit but do not cross it. What we ask them is to be fair, to race cleverly they need to win with each other.”

Though no racing action has taken place since the trio of exhilarating races in Australia, Lowes victory – coupled to a second and fourth place – means he currently holds onto the series lead at this time.