Suzuki’s Gino Rea was the toast of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park as he took his maiden victories and podiums in the class.

The Buildbase rider put on a masterclass of wet weather riding with pole position in qualifying followed by two imperious, and faultless, rides which saw him claim a victory in each of the two wet races.

It wasn’t just the wet where he excelled either with a close fourth place in Sunday’s dry race, just two-seconds off the win, further demonstration of just how well he rode over the course of the weekend. And all of this after he’d demolished the GSXR1000 during a crash at the infamous Craner Curves on Friday.

“I’m really happy with how the weekend’s gone and felt good in both the wet and dry,” Rea said afterwards. “It was incredible to win and a massive weight off my shoulders but I could, and perhaps should, have put it on the box in the dry race as well!”

Rea dominated Saturday’s opener and had a lead in excess of eight-seconds before easing off in the closing stages to come home ahead of Kyle Ryde and Christian Iddon. He admitted it wasn’t as easy as it looked though.

“It was really tough to concentrate and when the tyre cooled down, it felt like riding on ice. It was quite off putting when you were behind someone due to all the moments they were having so I got to the front as quick as I could although it was hard to judge the pace.”

“I had a good feel though and was able to focus on my own race but every corner seemed to have a different grip level and there was more lying water than what there had been in qualifying so it wasn’t easy. When I saw +6 on my pitboard, I wasn’t really pushing so just tried to keep the gap.”

Rea was in contention throughout in Sunday’s opening dry race and only missed out on the podium by just over half a second but when the rain returned later in the day, there was no stopping him despite the considerable pressure he was under from Iddon.

The weekend was also a reward for the hard work put in recently by Rea and Stuart and Steve Hicken’s hard-working team, which has seen him finish in the top six in seven of the last 11 races and the 32-year old admitted he’d like to stay put for 2022.

“We’ve been making good steps forward with the bike in the last few rounds and I felt comfortable in all conditions this weekend. I had quite a few moments in the final race but we got another win. Stuart and Steve and the whole team work incredibly hard so it’s great to repay them with the wins this weekend. I’m really happy where I am and there’s still plenty of life left in both me and the Suzuki!”