Cycle News

IN THE WIND P36 REA'S DOUBLE AFTER TROUBLE I t was all going wrong—relatively speaking—for Kawasaki Racing Team's Jonathan Rea at Porti- mao until it all went very right on race day with two wins that brought his career total up to 25 and his Kawasaki 2015 total to a whopping 10. He had to start off the third row in each 20-lap race, but overcame that disadvantage at the gnarly Portimao layout with top four positions into the early corners. His teammate Tom Sykes had beaten him twice at Donington only two weeks before, had started from the front row and had been over .3 of a second faster than Rea in warm-up. To cap it all off, Rea had fallen in Superpole, at around 112 mph, and was a bit more beat up entering race day than he had let on. Right up until the final laps of race one his potential to win again for sure had been in jeopardy. A dry start to the opener saw Rea and Sykes challenge each other strongly, but as Rea made a move forward and away from Sykes the rains came, slowly at first then with some degree of vengeance, complete with a gale that threatened to take a front wheel away from any unwary rider. Sykes caught up again; Rea pitted for wets one lap earlier than Sykes, and potential disas- ter loomed for Rea again. After Sykes pitted, he came out on wets—right behind Rea and the battle was on again. Until Sykes' machine developed a fault that lost him his chance of another victory and Rea headed off to win by 9.384 seconds. "With eight or nine laps left in race one I decided it was time to go and then maybe two laps later the rains came and it was, like, disaster!" Said Rea of his often dramatic first race flag-to-flag success. "I decided on a no risk strategy and came in straight away. My guys did a good pit stop and I was still learning the bike in these condi- tions. I have not done that many wet laps with the Kawasaki so I was learning and learning. "Tom [Sykes] came past in the wet and then I came back past him, and then he had some problem so I could win comfort- ably in the end. But the wind was so bad on the start straight it was almost blowing your front wheel out from under you. We did not plan for any flag-to-flag situations and I forgot the drill in pitlane." His team did not and Rea was unflappable to his first win. Sykes' bike cleared itself of its short-lived electronics problem as he crossed the line following his sudden enforced 9,000 rpm limit (possibly being fixed with Sykes' 'assistance' as he beat the fairing where his electronics box is located). The former World champ held off third place finisher Chaz Da- Jonathan Rea (65) pulled off another World Superbike double at Portimao.

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