Championship leader Jonathan Rea heads to this weekend’s UK round from Donington Park confident of being able to challenge Kawasaki team-mate Tom Sykes, who has been dominant at the circuit for the past four years.
Sykes is the World Superbike paddock’s Donington master, the 2013 world champion tallying up an impressive eight successive victories at the track since his title-winning season.
By contrast, double world champion Rea only has one win to his credit at Donington, but feels he has ‘got something’ with his package that will see him put Sykes’ record under extreme threat this year.
“I do feel like I have got something for Tom this year,” he told British website bikesportnews.co.uk.
“He rides well there and I am not sure what it is. It might be he rises to the occasion for a home race and the last sector really suits his style, as it is stop and go, but he is also quick on the other bits.”
Rea comes into the UK round of the series off the back of a fairly difficult Imola weekend by his standards. Unable to quite match the form of Ducati’s Chaz Davies in Italy, Rea was still able to limit the damage and come away with 40 points, which keeps his championship lead at a healthy 74 points.
Not only was Rea able to maintain a comfortable advantage in the standings after Imola, he also feels he and his team were able to learn more about his ZX-10RR and is keen to explore several new set-up changes.
“I have been really excited about coming back to Donington Park after a great start to the season,” he added.
“The track itself is a lot of fun, but is also challenging to find a good balance between stability in the heavy braking areas and agility in the fast and flowing parts.
“After Imola, we have a better understanding of our bike and I’m looking forward to putting some new set-up ideas in place.
“It’s been a long time since I won at Donington, so putting that right is the main target of the weekend.”
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