Jonathan Rea completed two days of track action at Jerez on Friday as KRT joined a three manufacturer WorldSBK test.
Allowing themselves Thursday off after initial evaluations on Wednesday, the six-time world champion ended his second day at the top of the unofficial timesheets thanks to a 1’38.831, with teammate Alex Lowes in hot pursuit.
Technical staff from both Kawasaki Racing and Kawasaki Motor Company joined the Spanish outing as the team worked through a raft of new components and settings on the official Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR before the winter developments could be agreed on. While the start of the 2022 WorldSBK season is set for April, the restrictions on testing days, to ten per rider, means track time needs to be carefully utilised with Rea recording 60 laps on the final day.
“It has been a really fun two days riding,” Rea said on Friday. “We structured the test to ride on day one, then have a day off to let the mechanics work on the bike. We got going again on day three.
"We found out a lot of good information and I am really happy with the team, Showa and KMC for their continued hard work in bringing new parts to test. I had a lot of fun on the bike and we managed to get through everything we had on the list at this test.
“Now is the important time because we will act on our findings and try to improve and re-evaluate some items again in January,” he explained further. “The weather was great at Jerez, quite consistent, and we got a lot of valuable track time in.
“To be honest, this test was quite challenging mentally because I did a lot of work and I had been off the bike for quite some time. I’m really looking forward to going home now and spending Christmas with my family and just having some downtime. I want to recharge now before I get stuck into my winter training again and look forward to the next test in January.”
“The test has been positive and for three days the weather has been good,” Rea’s Crew Chief Pere Riba added. “We concentrated on the chassis side at first, comparing different items with a good result. Johnny gave us very good and accurate information and comments and this helps us a lot to develop things and understand our direction.
“On the first day we tried something from Showa, something new, and Johnny was also very happy with those items. On the second day we analysed everything and prepared for riding again on day three. We have ten test days during the whole year so we have to save some days for the future tests. On the final day we focused more on the engine side because KMC has been working hard to send us some new material for 2022. We focused with the engine and clutch and Johnny was very happy.
“The rhythm in terms of lap times was very strong, and we did not use a qualifying tyre. I am honestly very pleased and happy to finish this test in this direction because Johnny was ‘talking’ very deep with the bike and enjoying riding it, and this is very important.”
