Cycle News

IN THE WIND P34 REA THE CHAMPION O nly when someone has had the kind of season that Ka- wasaki Racing Team's Jonathan Rea has had up to now do people speak about a tough outcome as two fourth places. Even after race one (in which 10th place would have been enough) Rea would have been World Champion. So finishing fourth, not the winner he expect- ed to be pre-race, Rea still got to perform his well rehearsed and highly touching post-first- race cool-down lap celebra- tions. It was a bit of a reminder that he is from Northern Ireland, and that he is not the first World Champion to come from there. First he stopped at turn two, took on a new helmet—actually Brian Reid's old helmet from when he was twice TTF2 Cham- pion in the mid 1980s. Then turn six to put on one of Joey Dunlop's old helmets from when he was five-time TTF1 champion in the same era. Then at turn 11, where the fans from Northern Ireland had congregated, he put on his own shiny gold cham- pion's crash helmet for 2015 proper. Even the disappointment of not keeping his expected podium form going, Rea knew had taken the big one in produc- tion derived racing, the one he had dreamed of as the son of road racer Johnny Rea senior, heading from track to track in a way he, himself, would mimic 20 years or so later. He knew why he had won the title, with little sense of wavering in his final comments. "I think we have won this championship because we have been so strong every weekend," said Rea. "The worst results of the season have been here, with two fourth places. That shows you the level of myself, the per- sonnel around me but mainly the level of the Ninja ZX-10R." Rea changed about every- thing this season—from team to suspension, from crew to colors—and he won the very first time he competed in a season for current World Superbike big dogs, Kawasaki. That's what factory racing does for a rider who was cer- tainly not a factory rider in his Honda years, although often a race winner. Rea's win first time out with Kawasaki proved to many that he really has been the most talented rider of the golden Brit- ish generation that moved over to World Superbike from British Superbike, almost en mass, at the end of the Noughties—cer- tainly of the ones who have stayed in World Superbike, at least. With his two worst races of 2015 now under his belt, he is 125 points ahead with four races left. Rea set a new lap record on the second lap, of 1:41.136, but after that it was downhill for his front tire. "I am disappointed because Jonathan Rea sealed the deal on his first ever World Superbike championship two rounds early at Jerez. PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE

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