2010: The thoughts of Ronald Ten Kate

As the new season beckons, few people have a better idea of how things will work out than the managers of each of the top World Superbike squads. Safe in this knowledge, we have set out to them all what they expect for the forthcoming season.

In the first of a series, WorldSBK.com asked the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda Team Manager, Ronald Ten Kate, what his hopes and expectations for the 2010 season were.

"We want to be challenging for the title in both classes, World Superbike and World Supersport," he declared.

Of his Superbike squad's chances, Ronald said, "In Superbike I think, realistically, that Jonathan Rea should be fast off the line and hopefully challenging for the title. Max Neukirchner will probably need a little bit of time in the season to come back to his full strength, as we knew it in the past. But Max is also another guy who will reach podiums and will also have race wins under his belt. Looking at the line up for 2010 it is an impressive bunch of people. Not hard to pick potential race winners. There are maybe around ten race winners you could pick for this coming season."

He continued, "In World Supersport there is no doubt at all that Kenan Sofuoglu (injured in a training accident at home in Turkey recently) will be fit for the first race at Phillip Island, even if he might be in some discomfort for the Portimao tests. Luckily for us we made a massive step forward in our Supersport set-up recently, also in our tests at Valencia in December, which gives us some confidence. Not overconfidence at all, but we have some confidence that 2010 will be a much better year for us."