Dream. Believe. Achieve. My Autobiography by Jonathan Rea

Author:Jonathan Rea
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2018-08-27T16:00:00+00:00

Back on the track, Kyalami was followed by another podium at Salt Lake City in the USA, by which stage I think the team was beginning to understand I was the real deal and not some young rookie who should do as he was told.

There was something else bothering me too: the suspension. The team had been using WP suspension for years and years, and while it worked great in Supersport, they had never really done much in Superbike. It was so stiff and strong I could have ridden the bike into a brick wall at 100mph and we could still have used the forks in the next race. Our rivals used Öhlins and I really wanted to try it. For a second time, they trusted my judgement and made an expensive decision to fix the shiny new gold-coloured suspension on my bike. Without any testing, we used it in the next round.

Misano is on the Italian Riviera on the Adriatic coast and it’s always a favourite because the weather’s great, the beach is nearby and the Italian fans are just so passionate about their racing. The circuit is about an hour down the road from the Ducati factory, so they never let you forget where you are and who they’d like to see winning – an Italian rider on an Italian bike at an Italian circuit.

Despite not having had a chance to dial in our new suspension, I qualified second fastest just behind a Ducati ridden by Czech rider Jakub Smrz. Ben Spies, who was lighting up the championship that year on a Yamaha, was third, with Italian Michel Fabrizio on the factory Ducati completing the front row. His team-mate, Noriyuki Haga, was sixth with my own team-mates Checa and Kiyonari alongside him on row two.

Race one started wet, which was really unfortunate because we’d had no chance to ride with the new suspension in those conditions. Apart from Spies, who won, it turned into a Ducati-fest with their bikes taking the other two podium places plus fourth and fifth as well. But race two was dry and I felt much more confident as the lights went out and we charged down to turn one. I was in a good position, but then Haga screamed down to take the holeshot while I scrapped a bit with Ben Spies for second. As the race settled down I was in second, shadowing Haga. I was conscious of looking after the rear tyre to make sure I had some grip left at the end.

Fabrizio had got up to third to form a kind of Ducati sandwich with me as the filling. I didn’t fancy that too much and on lap four got in front of Haga for the lead. The two Ducatis were right on my tail, so there was no way I could afford to make the smallest mistake. Fabrizio got past his team-mate for second, but they ended up fighting each other a little, which allowed me to open a small gap where I stayed for the next 12 laps.

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