Jonathan Rea will begin his bid to retain the World Superbike crown he won in style last season at this weekend’s first round of the series in Australia.The Northern Ireland rider will be aiming to emulate the achievement of Carl Fogarty, who successfully defended his title twice in the 1990s.
Rea, 29, won 14 of the 26 races last year and was on the podium 23 times.
Among his challengers will be England’s Tom Sykes, his Kawasaki team-mate, and Wales’s Chaz Davies, runner-up in 2016.
Challengers out to topple Rea
Davies will again be on board a Ducati, along with Italian Davide Giugliano, while Michael van der Mark and former MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden will spearhead the Ten Kate Honda challenge.
England’s Alex Lowes and Sylvain Guintoli of France will ride for Pata Yamaha, with reigning British Superbike champion Josh Brookes racing for Milwaukee BMW.
“My motivation is to try to back up last year’s success by retaining the title as that has proved a very difficult thing to do,” confirmed Rea.
“I am under no illusions as to how difficult it is going to be. Tom is really strong and Chaz had a good end to the season but I have the best crew around me and an incredible motorcycle.
“I just need to do my bit and hopefully it will produce the same end result.”
The Isle of Man-based rider is taking part in testing at the Phillip Island circuit this week.
The opening two races will be staged at the same venue, where he finished first and second last year, on Saturday and Sunday.
“I am really excited for the start of the season because it has been a long winter with a lot of testing,” added Rea, whose machine will bear the number one plate.
“We are starting to put all the pieces of the jigsaw together to start making our race package and we are really happy because the bike is at a very good level and we have had some good tests.”
Fogarty secured back-to-back titles in 1994 and 1995, and again in 1998 and 1999, repeating the feat achieved by American Fred Merkel in 1988 and 1989.