IN
THE
WIND
P40
REA PERFECT
AS RIVALS
TOIL IN DUTCH
WORLDSBK
A
s an object lesson in how to
pile on pressure, Jonathan
Rea and his KRT squad are writ-
ing new chapters in the all-time
instruction manual of how to build
a points lead.
At Assen, where Rea took his
200th race start in WorldSBK and
his 45th career race win, thanks
to his latest double success, he
eased to a lead of 64 points over
his own teammate Tom Sykes.
After only eight races.
"The bike is much better," said
Rea on Sunday, about why 2017 is
proving to be fruitful for him so far.
"Last year we won a lot of races,
not by luck, but things just went
our way. This year…today was
maybe the closest and Tom was
really strong. Yesterday in race
one, I felt if it had come down
to a last lap, I felt mentally and
physically good enough to fight. I
have been especially happy with
Superpole yesterday because the
lap I made then was maybe the
best lap I have ever made on a
bike."
"It is never, never easy because
especially Tom and Chaz are the
best riders right now in this cham-
pionship and it looks like it is us
three who are setting the level of
the class. I am doing the winning
right now in this track, but it is very
close."
But as the statistics show, it is
Rea who is doing almost all the
winning, however close it is.
As a lesson in how to achieve
podiums against the odds, Sykes'
perseverance in the face of an
as-yet-unsolved intestinal and
stomach illness is proving legend-
ary, too. He picked up the pieces
of Chaz Davies' and Ducati's
disappointment in race one and
then almost won in his own right in
race two.
Not too bad for a man who was
in the hospital for extensive tests
and was nearly not going to race
on Tuesday before race weekend.
As Davies had proved before
his bike's electronics package
had packed up just over a lap
away from a fight for the first race
win with Rea, it was not a Kawasa-
ki festival all-in at Assen. Bad luck
was Davies' curse in race one; a
bad setup for machine balance
and engine response was still not
enough to deprive him of third
place in race two.
But his domination of the last
part of the 2016 season seems
a long way in his past, even if
Ducati's Aruba.it Racing team did
see the other podium spot filled
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
Jonathan Rea (1) battles teammate Tom Sykes at the Assen round of the
WorldSBK Championship. Rea came out on top both races.
Nicky Hayden
is still coming
to terms with
his new bike.
