ROAD RACE
MOTUL FIM SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 7 / JUNE 8-10, 2018
BRNO CIRCUIT/ OSTROVAICE, CZECH REPUBLIC
P64
BY GORDON RITCHIE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
B
rno in the Czech Republic
was the place contemporary
WorldSBK great Jonathan
Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) won
his first WorldSSP race back in
2008, before he went upstairs to
the Superbike class full time in
2009. He even named his dog
after the Czech circuit.
He won the Brno opening race
in 2018 with so much ease he said
he could even take his hand off
the gas at times, and ride to his pit
board signals.
Day one for Rea was pure
record-breaking bliss.
"I feel really fortunate to have
this opportunity, riding a great bike
and to be here every weekend,"
he said. "To win the 60th race in
that fashion, being dominant,
was really nice."
Rea is now one better than Carl
Fogarty in terms of all-time career
race wins, but his second race
was to end before it had really
begun. More on that shortly.
Rea was five seconds ahead
of a resurgent Marco Melandri
(Aruba.it Ducati) in race one and
well over seven seconds up on his
teammate Tom Sykes, with whom
he was to have a major falling out
with on the track, and afterwards,
in race two on Sunday.
Before all that chaos, Sykes
had extended his own Superpole
record to 45 on Saturday, but in
race one was again just missing
some degree of ability to corner
like he really wanted to. He ended
up happy with third… in the cir-
cumstances, at least.
The Czech Republic round of WorldSBK
saw Jonathan Rea break the record for
most career wins, and Alex Lowes join the
list of first-time winners.
RECORDS
AND FIRST
TIMERS
