Jonathan Rea Focuses On More Race Wins At Magny Cours With The 2017 Title At His Fingertips

Reigning FIM Superbike World Champion Jonathan Rea will go into this week’s eleventh round of the 2017 campaign with the possibility of retaining the crown and becoming the first ever rider to win three Superbike World Championships in a row.

Thanks to his fourth double win of the year, last time out in Portugal, Jonathan enters the third-to-last round of the championship at Magny-Cours this weekend with a 120 point championship lead over his own team-mate Tom Sykes. If he records two solid results in France on his Ninja ZX-10RR he will take an historic third championship, with two events remaining in the 13-round season.

After such a remarkable 2017 season so far, a campaign in which Jonathan and team-mate Sykes sit 1-2 after ten rounds and have shared 13 wins between them, the biggest story of all may well unfold at a track that is no stranger to significant occurrences in WorldSBK history. 

With all that in mind Rea is, however, acutely aware that he still has to put in those solid performances on the weekend and with a further day of testing undertaken at Portimao, on the Monday after the last race weekend, he is confident that he and the Ninja ZX-10RR can win the races in France this weekend as well.

Racing returns to the regular European schedule this weekend with the lights going out for the two 21 lap races at 13:00 (GMT +2) on Saturday and Sunday.

Jonathan Rea, stated: “I'm excited for this weekend, especially after such a strong weekend in Portimao where we remained for a day of testing after the race. We found some positives that we can perhaps implement this weekend to give me some extra confidence on corner entry. Magny Cours is a great circuit and one that I've been strong at in the past. The circuit itself requires a little compromise when setting up the bike and we will also have to keep in mind the weather, as at this time of the year anything can happen. This weekend is the first opportunity we have to try to win the 2017 WorldSBK championship. I want to put that out of my mind for now and go and do my best in both races. I'm confident with how the ZX-10RR is now, and that we can go and fight for race wins.”