Flying Colors

PANGBOURNE, ENGLAND: Three colors, two riders, one championship. That pretty much sums up the Castrol Honda racing team, according to 24-year-old Superbike rider, Jonathan Rea. “How can I not win in these colors?” his team mate Ruben Xaus adds on, throwing a little more fuel (no pun intended) into the media fire they had intentionally lit during an intimate press conference at the Castrol technical headquarters in Pangbourne, England.

“After many years of racing at world championship level it is very nice and important for me to be part of a big project like the new Castrol Honda team. The biggest motorcycle manufacturer in the world is joining together with one of the biggest lubricants companies in the world and supporting the Ten Kate team, which has had a lot of success with many world championship titles. All together it’s a big and really exciting mixture,” a visibly excited Xaus explained when pressed about the significance of racing under these flying colors.

Them’s may be some fightin’ words, but none of the handful of journalists who had assembled for the launch expected either rider to take them back. Such is the history, legacy and pressure that surrounds those three distinct colors that Castrol has slapped on – in one iteration or another – across the broadside of some of the winningest machines on two wheels ever since they started lubricating them for competition almost a hundred years ago.

The official motorcycle championship may have not been born until 1949, but the world’s most famous oil brand already had one dipstick in during the unofficial formative years of two wheeled racing back in the early 1900s when organized competition began. But it wasn’t until the 1960s, when a new breed arrived to change the world of motorcycling forever that another legend was born – one that Castrol can proudly boast to have been part of from the very beginning.

Over forty years on and countless world championships later, two names that resonate through the garages of the most historic pit lanes join forces again, as the legendary Castrol and Honda combination return to World Superbike. The previous Castrol Honda team won three World Championships in WSBK racing with John Kocinski in 1997, and Colin Edwards in 2000 and 2002. And their 2011 rider line-up may have them rushing out to build a bigger trophy cabinet.

“When our world championship racing adventure was first beginning, many years ago now, Castrol Honda was the one team in the paddock which everyone looked up to, whose professional and performance standards we all wanted to achieve. It is an honor for us now to be racing under this famous and historically successful banner and we are privileged to be following in the footsteps of the team we admired so much in the past,” said team manager Ronald ten Kate.

Despite a fourth place finish in last month’s season opener in Melbourne, Jonathan Rea remains upbeat and completely focused. “One of my main inspirations for racing was watching Castrol Honda’s Colin Edwards battle Troy Bayliss for the World Superbike championship in that epic season in 2002,” a fairly humbled Jonathan Rea explains to The STAR in a one on one interview. ”It’s a real honor for me to be racing under those same famous colors for the 2011 season and I’ll be trying my hardest to recreate what Colin did for the Castrol Honda team,” the young Irish born rider explains with a heady mixture of pride and excitement in his voice.

The season heads to Donnington Park at the end of the month and is considered a home race for Jonathan Rea and Castrol. The pressure is on, but then again, that’s exactly what both of them are designed for.

Locally, Castrol Philippines continues its winning ways with its staunch support of Philippine motor sports, including the successful TRS (Tuason Racing School) team who are the current Philippine Touring Car, Karting, GT and Drifting champions.