WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
BY GORDON RITCHIE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
P
ata Honda's Jonathan Rea tore his way through a virtually
perfect race weekend at Imola, but his second and third
wins of the season could not have been more of a contrast
than his wet-weather victory at Assen.
Rea was on brilliant form all weekend, with pole in the blistering
Saturday afternoon. On a slightly cooler day of temperatures in the
high 60s he clattered in two wins, with an advantage of over four
seconds that was six seconds at one point in race two.
VOL. 51 ISSUE 19 MAY 13, 2014 P35
Briefly...
A fault with a trackside drain cover
delayed the start of the second free
practice session on Friday after-
noon, and then a wildfire just out-
side the track fence brought out a
red flag. A final and not immediately
fixable issue with the drain cover
ended the first day's action once
and for all. Work was completed on
a permanent fix at midnight on Fri-
day. On Saturday there were numer-
ous red flags and delays that caused
some schedule shuffles, in a season
which is proving to be as disturbed
by unscheduled happenings as any
in living memory. Leon Haslam had a
heavy fall and his bike damaged the
trackside protective barriers.
Michel Fabrizio is set to leave the
Iron Brain Grillini Kawasaki team af-
ter the Imola race and even possibly
take a ride for the Ioda GP team at
the French Grand Prix at Le Mans.
There was a fly in the ointment for
his planned replacement at Grillini,
Bryan Staring, who was supposed to
sign for Grillini at the Imola, but suf-
fered a broken arm in a bike-training
accident just a day before the Imola
race weekend. The Aussie star was
supposed to test at the official test
on Monday after the Imola round.
Imola changed in places compared
to last year, but primarily in the pad-
dock areas. The media center was
made smaller to accommodate a bar
for the public to use, and one part
of the paddock will be open to the
public all year round, as there is a
plan to make a general shopping ar-
cade inside the paddock buildings,
to generate some income. As Imola
(the track) is actually inside Imola
(the town) this is not as outlandish an
idea as it first may sound.
continued on next page
