Weather plays havoc with Rea’s results at Donington

BY GILES SPENCER
giles@slpmedia.co.uk

Tooting motorcycle racer Gino Rea endured a tough time at Donington Park last weekend with one top ten finish in tricky conditions.

The 31 year old was the best of the Buildbase Suzuki’s, qualifying in tenth on the grid on the front of the fourth row for Saturday’s 20 lap sprint race.

With the race starting on a drying track, Rea made a great start, running near the front before hitting a wet patch at Coppice corner on lap one, then again a couple of laps later which sent him onto the grass, dropping him to 17th before working his way back to take the final point in 15th by the chequered flag.

Starting twelth for Sunday’s dry race one, Rea retired on lap 18 whilst holding twelfth place, only seven seconds behind the leader, Tarran MacKenzie on the McAMS Yamaha.

From 15th on the grid for the final race, Rea made the start he’d wanted, moving up to eleventh by the end of the first lap but rain starting to fall brought out the red flags.

For the restart, with the grid gambling on tyres, Rea hoped full wets would work but the rapidly drying track only gifted the South London rider one place over the first lap with a couple more upto twelfth a lap later.

As the track continued to dry, the riders who gambled on slicks came into their own though Rea still pushed on, cracking into the top ten by mid race distance.

Continuing to get faster, Rea closed down Dan Linfoot for ninth, only for the TAG Racing Honda rider to deny him by just 0.132 seconds at the line.

Shakey Byrne’s Sixty Seven Sports management rider, Bradley Ray enjoyed his first podium of the year with a second place finish in race two along with tenth in the first race and 16th in the last.

Rea said, “It’s been a positive weekend overall because of the progress we made today (Sunday), especially going into the second race.

“We had good qualifying. I struggled on Friday with the setup of the chassis, we made a big change going into Saturday and that paid off. Tenth position but from sixth to eleventh the riders were on virtually the same lap time.

“I had a really good start in the first race but unfortunately touched a damp patch at Coppice and the next lap I hit a damp patch I couldn’t see and had a bigger moment which sent me onto the and I lost all track position. I managed to get back past my team mate and get into the points but it wasn’t ideal.

“We made another change for Sunday morning’s race and I really struggled at the beginning but as the fuel load went down I got faster and faster but the tyre really dropped but my pace was quite good. Then my quick shifter failed so I had to bring it into the pits.

“We made another chassis change for the third race and I felt really good from the first lap and made a good start, then the rain started at the turn one. A few of the leading riders put their hands up and it was red flagged.

“It’s unfortunate because by the time we got to two corners later it had stopped raining and for the next 20-30 minutes there wasn’t really any rain and we could have had a decent dry race but it wasn’t to be.

“It was damp conditions on the siting lap (in the restart) so we decided to go for an intermediate rear and wet front tyre but in the end it wasn’t the right choice. We should’ve gone intermediate front but we didn’t realise how quick it was going to dry.

“I was the quickest rider on a wet front/intermediate rear and was just catching Linfoot in the end but I needed another lap or two.

“I managed to get tenth but not ideal. I think we would’ve had a really strong result if I’d had an intermediate front. It’s been a bit up and down but the bike was the best in the last race which was positive and we’ll take it with us to Cadwell.”

The next round is at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire on the weekend of the 20th-22nd August.

Photos: Impact Images/Bonnie Lane