Rea On Top As The New Superbike World Championship Season Approaches
Jonathan Rea and Kawasaki Racing Team completed their final winter test at Phillip Island today ahead of the new FIM World Superbike season, which starts at the weekend.
Current World Champion Rea topped the timesheets throughout the day on his Ninja ZX-10RR with his fastest lap time of 1m 30.545 falling inside the current Superbike lap record for the Australian circuit.
The popular Phillip Island venue will host the first round of the season between 24th and 26th February and will offer the first points scoring opportunities of the new year for double champion Jonathan Rea, who won the title in 2015 and 2016.
Jonathan now has two days to relax and complete his final preparations for what promises to be a competitive 13-round/26-race season. Having made real progress with the 2017 Ninja ZX-10RR through the winter test programme Rea has positive expectations as he anticipates racing at the high-speed Australian circuit in just a few days time.
The first qualifying sessions of the new season start on Friday 24th February, with race one to be held at 15:00 (GMT +11) on Saturday and the second race of the year coming along on Sunday.
After the opening round has been completed the second event will take place at the relatively new and highly popular Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand, between 10th and 12th March.
Jonathan Rea, stated: “Now we have picked the bike we will use for race weekend and put the package together. I have had such a good off-season; I feel I have done a really good job with my personal condition and I have managed to stay healthy so far. Every winter test we’ve done we have been working step-by-step. We understood at the end of last year, when we made a huge change for Qatar, I could race the bike again. So during the winter tests it was not about re-inventing the wheel. Already the ZX-10RR has given us some more potential. We were already at a high level. This winter was about building the package, building momentum and confidence. Now I feel like I have it so I just hope we can stay safe and bag some big points at the start of the new season.”