HOME ROUND REA
Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jonathan Rea will take part in his home round of the 2023 FIM Superbike World Championship at Donington Park this weekend, 30 June to 2 July.
The sixth round of the 2023 WorldSBK championship takes place a month after the previous event at Misano World Circuit in Italy. Rea arrives at this round fresh from a private one-day test at Motorland Aragon in Spain last week where he and team-mate Alex Lowes tested a number of items and machine settings in the warm temperatures.
Rea is keen to get back to competitive action with Donington being a happy hunting grounds in recent seasons, having scored six race wins there since 2015.
The 4.023km long circuit, located on the boundary of Derbyshire and Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England, hosted the first ever WorldSBK race in 1988 and has become one of the most popular venues for the series with over 60 WorldSBK races being held over that period. This year, however, it offers a new challenge with the entire track having been resurfaced since the last visit of WorldSBK in 2022.
Weekend Schedule: (GMT +1)
Friday:
Free Practice 1 - 10:30-11:15
Free Practice 2 - 15:00-15:45
Saturday:
Free Practice 3 - 09:00-09:30
Superpole Qualifying - 11:10-11:25
WorldSBK Race 1 - 14:00 (23 laps)
Sunday:
Warm Up: - 10:00-10:15
Tissot Superpole Race - 13:00 (10 laps)
WorldSBK Race 2 - 16:00 (23 laps)
Jonathan Rea said: “Donington is a track I have been looking forward to racing at for a while now. It is a special one in the season because it’s a home race, with lots of family and friends there. Growing up in the BSB paddock some of the same fans turn out now just like they did then, so you feel like you know everyone. It really helps that we have had good success there in the past. This time of year the weather should be good so I expect a cool weekend with a lot of fans there. It helps that we had a test last week, trying to improve the package of the bike. We had some positive results from that. Some things we can use straight away and some things we hope to see in the future. The Donington track itself is a real challenge to set the bike up for, so it is important that we are productive on Friday. The first two sectors are fast and flowing in nature but the last sector is really unique. You want an agile bike that handles well - but also one that is very stable and stops well in the last sector. On top of that, the track has been resurfaced completely. We need to keep an eye on what challenges that throws us, and then just put the weekend together like normal. The target is the podium and it would be amazing to come away from Donington with a good haul of points. Standing on the podium at your home race would be very special.”