Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea bagged the double World Superbike double at Imola today using an engine that was not perfectly setup for the Italian track but a compromise between it and the gearbox setting allowed him to take the gentleman’s set.
The Castletown resident took pole, two wins and the fastest lap of the weekend, and he was only a tenth of a second shy of Tom Sykes’ race lap record set last year. Rea believes now he and the team are in a ‘happy place’ and it can set the tone for the coming season.
“Since the birth of my son and my rehabilitation, plus the team’s hard work over the winter, we have arrived in a happy place. The bike is much more competitive. Because the gearbox is different to the one at Assen, we changed the engine to one that is not ideal for Imola,” said Rea, speaking at the track.
“We were running it into the limiter in a couple of places but the compromise was really good and we were still able to be competitive, the team have given me a really good bike to ride this weekend.
“The high point of my career before was the perfect weekend at Assen in 2010 but this feels like that again. I’m happy I have a bike I can ride really hard and it has given me the result we all deserve.
“By trend, we have always gone well at Imola but also Donington and Misano, Sepang is a new circuit. We will go into every weekend as a new weekend and not get too big for our boots just yet, it’s only round four but it will be nice to keep this ball rolling. My confidence is at a good level, so I don’t see why we can’t ride the same way.”
