IN
THE
WIND
P36
REA AND DAVIES LEAD EARLY
WORLDSBK EXCHANGES
T
he new era of Motul FIM Su-
perbike World Championship
racing will feature a wide array of
potential race-winning talent but
to no one's surprise it was the
two riders who finished the 2016
series strongest—champion
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing
Team/KRT) and late season un-
touchable Chaz Davies (Aruba.
it Racing Ducati World SBK)—
who led the field home at the
recent Jerez and Portimao tests,
respectively.
KRT, in the shape of Rea and
his teammate Tom Sykes, did
not travel to Portimao. They ar-
guably did not need to, as both
Rea (enjoying more of a settled
overall machine balance) and
Sykes were fast over both sunny
and relatively consistent days at
Jerez on January 24-25.
Rea did not quite reach the
MotoGP-ish times he had re-
corded in November at Jerez but
even without using a qualifying
tire he smashed into the sub-
1:40s with a 1:39.809.
"I did a 1:39.8, then a 1:40.0,
Just like old times: Rea was
unsurprisingly fastest at
Jerez and elected not to go
to Portugal, such was his
confidence.
