Rain and wind put paid to a lot of useful work for a majority of WorldSBK riders at Phillip Island today but reigning champion Jonathan Rea managed to make some setup balance adjustments ahead of a race run he will carry out tomorrow on the works Kawasaki.
Rea echoed most of the riders and explained that it was a ‘difficult day for everybody, because the weather was so inconsistent’ but the 30-year-old managed to complete a total of 21-laps in the second session this afternoon, which saw him post a best of 1’31.823 to trail Xavi Fores by four-tenths.
“We didn’t get as many laps on track as we would have liked,” Rea told bikesportnews.com. “We got some dry laps in the late afternoon, but the wind was so strong and makes it even more difficult to ride here.”
Rea explained that he would have to pay close attention to the weather and the wind, because one day the bike setup is working ok, then the wind can change, which makes some corners quite hard to turn into.
While it was a tough day for Rea and his team, he did admit that he did feeling good on the bike, even though they didn’t get many laps in as they would have hoped for.
Rea, who took the double at the ‘Island’ in 2016 also explained that the balance of this year’s ZX-10R is quite similar to last year’s 2016 machine. The team have just improved some areas, such as the engine and electronics and step by step they are just refining things to make things a little bit better on the bike.
“We have a good idea where to start,” said Rea. “The balance of the bike when we arrived is quite on the rear, so we had to change it. However the team reacted quickly in the day to sort this issue out.
“Sure we don’t quite understand exactly where we are as we haven’t done long runs or other riders haven’t done many laps. So we need to see where we are tomorrow.”
Rea plans to do a race simulation tomorrow in terms of distance on a rear tyre but it might not be in one stint.
Day one highlights from Kawasaki
