Nearly There For Jonathan Rea In WorldSBK
T
he scene was ideally set
last weekend for Jonathan
Rea (KRT) to become a six-time
champion in WorldSBK at Magny
Cours, France, a venue at which
he usually wins titles.
He had made the best possible
start, winning races in the two
opening contests (race one and
Superpole race), from his front
row starting positions. And yet, in
a not-quite-fully-wet but still a long
way from dry race two, Rea had to
watch on as an interested partici-
pant as his only possible champi-
onship rival Scott Redding (Aruba.
it Ducati) won with a gutsy display
of determination and pride.
That was one thing, but local
hero Loris Baz (Ten Kate Yamaha)
taking a second-place finish
again was quite another.
The final plot twist was that
Redding's teammate Chaz Davies
was the one to push Rea off of
the third-place podium spot that
would have given him the title this
weekend. Now he has to go to
Estoril for the final round with just
three points needed, over three
races, to seal the championship.
Rea splashed and dashed his
way to two confident wins, the
first after escaping an incident-
packed start-line/turn-one inci-
dent when Garret Gerloff (GRT
Yamaha) and Tom Sykes (BMW
Motorrad) touched and Sykes
fell, then taking out his own team-
mate Eugene Laverty with his
stricken bike.
That was disastrous enough for
the only two S 1000 RR riders in
the championship, but they had
been on pole—via Laverty—and
second position, respectively.
They blamed Gerloff for not
thinking about his opportunistic
inside-line dash into a left-hand
first corner. The verbal recrimina-
tions were barbed and double-
IN
THE
WIND
P42
Scott Redding (45) kept his slim title hopes alive with a win in race two.
