VOL. 54 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 19, 2017 P41
REA AHEAD AFTER SINGLE DAY OF TESTING
H
aving won both
races at Portimao,
Jonathan Rea (KRT)
then went out Monday,
September 18, to set
the fastest time of the
subsequent tests, with
a 1:42.313 lap. He
outpaced Chaz Davies
and his 1:42.711 and
wrapped up his work a
little early compared to
his main rival.
Rea was using some
chassis settings to im-
prove things next year,
especially important if
the much-talked-about
rev-limits come to
pass.
"For us it is impor-
tant that we can maxi-
mize the chassis balance," Rea
said. "The chassis next year is
going to be very important for
us. We seemed to do that and
we also had some different final
gearing than we used on the
race weekend. I wasn't better
and wasn't worse. We did not so
many laps."
With Tom Sykes recuperat-
ing from an operation on his left
little finger and missing this test,
there were still familiar names at
the top of the 12-man entry list.
Marco Melandri and his of-
ficial Ducati were third fastest,
but there was a surprise new
name right up among the fast-
est, Toprak Razgatlioglu. Almost
100 percent certain to be a su-
perbike rider for his current Ka-
wasaki Puccetti Racing squad
in 2018, he rode a non-factory
ZX-10RR to fourth-best time,
1:43.249. Less than a second
from Rea, who had helped him
to learn the lines and when to
pick up and nail the throttle on a
slick-tired Superbike, Razgatlio-
glu was a revelation underneath
the eye of his mentor, Kenan
Sofuoglu.
Razgatlioglu simply wowed
the test paddock with his times,
setting a row of 1:43s, and his
presence in Superbike is ea-
gerly anticipated now.
Behind him, and still unhappy
with progress in general, was
Eugene Laverty, also just less
than a second from Rea.
"For me it was a huge differ-
ence in electronics and the tires
were difficult to understand in
the first run, but later I started to
adapt to them," said Razgatlio-
glu after the completion of his
test. "Then we modified ev-
erything and I started to like it.
Johnny Rea was a big help to
me to understand the right lines
and how to ride a Superbike."
Rounding out the top 10 was
Michael van der Mark, Alex
Lowes, Lorenzo Savadori, Jordi
Torres and Riccardo Russo. CN
Jonathan Rea was once again
unstoppable in the test at Portimao.
