Rea ready to begin title defence Down Under

Reigning World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea is ready to begin the defence of his crown Down Under after a strong pre-season for the Kawasaki rider.

The Northern Irishman made history in 2016 by becoming the first British rider since Carl Fogarty in 1999 to claim back-to-back WorldSBK titles, and comes into the new season as the clear favourite.

Testing has gone incredibly well for Rea aboard the new ZX-10RR. The Kawasaki rider has spent his time building on the breakthroughs the team made at the Qatar round last year with the single throttle body – now mandatory for 2017 – and he feels that the bike is ‘already at a high level’ coming into this weekend’s Phillip Island round.

“I have had such a good off-season; I feel I have done a really good job with my personal condition and I have managed to stay healthy so far,” said Rea.

“Every winter test we’ve done we have been working step-by-step. We understood at the end of last year, when we made a huge change for Qatar, I could race the bike again.

“So during the winter tests it was not about re-inventing the wheel. Already the ZX-10RR has given us some more potential. We are already at a high level. This winter was about building the package, building momentum and confidence.

“Now I feel like I have it so I just hope we can stay safe and bag some big points at the start of the new season.”

Rea comes into the 2017 campaign with a mighty achievement in prospect. In WorldSBK’s 29 seasons, no-one has ever claimed three titles on the bounce.

However, a chance at making history is not on the double world champion’s mind ahead of the Phillip Island round. Instead, he is focused solely on beating his closest rivals.

“Motivation for me does not come from a possible ‘threepeat’,” Rea said in an interview with British publication MCN.

“Motivation for me comes from beating my rivals, beating Tom (Sykes), beating Chaz (Davies), Eugene (Laverty) and (Marco) Melandri. It’s a huge rivalry in your head.

“It’s not me thinking about money, or a repeat, or history books. It’s about these guys I race against and the things they say that piss me off!

“That’s where the motivation is; beating your rivals. It’s not even about being world champion as I’ve done that, it’s about trying to stick one over my rivals.”