INTERVIEW
2016 WORLDSBK CHAMPION JONATHAN REA
P94
I crashed. I hit a false neutral,
didn't get the bike started in time
and then it snapped into gear in
the last corner and kicked me
off.
But it was nice to be in the
driving seat that part of the year.
We did a bit of damage in the
first few races, scored 95 out
of 100 points over two rounds,
and then we could not relax but
the next races we got through.
Then we started winning again in
Misano and at Laguna being on
the podium. Maybe at Sepang
and Donington, it seemed like
we were just kind of riding for a
championship. Maybe not all the
time, but when we had to get on
the gas we did, and when we
had to be clever we were.
You're the first rider in any
world championship for a
very long time to defend the
number one plate. What do
you think about that?
It's quite hard honestly. The
hardest thing probably for me
was coming to Kawasaki be-
cause I was already leaving a
good team, good people. I was
the number one guy there, being
treated very well. But the bike
wasn't as competitive. When I
came here, Kawasaki already
had their world champion
(Sykes). I was coming in as the
second guy. So there was a lot
of pressure for me to step up.
Once I did that and found my
place in the team it was more
pressure off. So coming into
this year, the biggest pressure
was coming from me mentally—it
was a new bike and we had to
develop it. There were certain
things we couldn't change,
certain things we had to adapt
to and others we had accept.
But we made the best of the
season.
You don't believe running
the number one on the bike
is bad luck?
I don't know. For sure, I
thought about it at the start of
the year but—it's one of them
numbers you can't choose, can
you? I think you should. I don't
have multi-million-dollar mer-
chandise deals with anybody.
65 is my number but if you
get a chance to run number
one you should run it, I think. I
come from a motocross back-
ground, I was pushing the orga-
nizers to let me run red plates
when I was leading!
Have you got any of your
championship bikes?
I will have. Just not now be-
cause the chassis' are similar
and a lot of parts were used still
like switches and suspension.
One happy family. It's almost as
if Rea has only gotten faster with
marriage and children.
