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WorldSBK Catalunya: Rea 'praying every night' for new Ninja in 2021

Even with a race win on his 1-2-4 race result card from the first ever Catalunya race weekend, the excessively successful level that Jonathan Rea and his KRT squad have put in over the past few seasons, the ‘Team 65’ members cannot look at their literal home race as being their most successful ever.

The five-time champion is now concerned that the long-in-the-tooth ZX-10RR should be replaced with something brand new in 2021 to do something about the Ducati and Honda in a straight line at least.

The final consequences of Rea having a Saturday long race win, a lucky escape for second in the sprint on Sunday, and then some kind of front end brake or other bizarre vibration that held him back to another very rare off podium finish may well be season-definingly huge however.

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For the simple reason that his only championship rival with four rounds left, Scott Redding, had an even worse time than Rea did.

The original ‘on paper’ insight into the second half of the season, a perfectly valid and logical one, was that after trading blows in the earlier rounds, Motorland Aragon’s two recent identical events would see Redding (and the Ducati riders in general) use their monstrous motors to outscore Rea over each weekend, and Rea would have to play catch-up at this round, Magny-Cours and then there would be the great unknown, untested, finale at Estoril.

As it turned out, Rea has left each recent round outscoring Redding quite comfortably to the point that he now has a championship lead of 51 whopping points.

More than two complete race wins with four full point and two sprint race points to be allocated. Nothing done yet, not by a long stretch, but after this last weekend, Rea has a the definite advantage entering a track he usually does well at.

On the least modern, least race-focused overall bike in the paddock now, Kawasaki, KRT and Rea are combining as well as ever to get the job done. But it is not getting any easier as the competition improves all around.

A lot of the winning package is Rea himself, the team are first to admit that, and he had to be his best self to win on Saturday, but most of all to recover from a near no-score experience and keep second in the Sunday ten-lap special.

“In the sprint race I felt pretty good but of course in the first laps I was very, very lucky,” said Rea.

Alvaro Bautista had fallen in a huge highside just as he took the lead, and the following Michael van der Mark (the eventual winner) and Rea -  on a wider line - were so close behind.

VDM had a gap to go through on the inside. Rea – you could see the handlebars deflect a tad in the later slo-mo replays – actually clipped the Honda as he tried to avoid it and enough for even the experienced five times champion to consider baling off.

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“Alvaro came past on the straight and then in T4 had a huge crash at the exit. I hit his bike and in this moment I thought I was down; was going to crash.

"I almost let go but miraculously I stayed upright and someone was definitely helping me out there. I had to regroup and chase Mikey but his pace was very good so congratulations to him and his team.”

It was VDM’s first race win of 2020, but crucially for Rea, Redding was way behind and would finish eighth in the sprint.

In the final race, and after Rea’s first race win over full distance on Saturday, many had him down to win again but Chaz Davies in particular, and his front-end issue in general, had other ideas. Fourth was not so bad again when you consider Redding was sixth.

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I just didn't have it in the final race. I felt I had some issues straight away with the front feeling, a lot of vibration in the brakes but apart from that feeling I felt good for about ten laps.

"The grip level started to drop and I suffered more with the front tyre than yesterday. I was getting a lot of warnings. The race was very tough and aggressive in the beginning so as soon as the pace settled I was just there, and the gap was very constant to the front group but to arrive in the front group I was going to have to go over the limit and push the front too much. I could see the gap to behind was increasing so I just consolidated my position.”

Rea realised that even with his issues at times, he and his people actually achieved their pre-Barcelona goal.

“It wasn’t he perfect condition this afternoon but that was the target coming here. To increase our championship lead, and I am very happy.

"The feeling, even winning the race yesterday, the feeling was not so good. I was a little bit slower than my race yesterday but the others improved a lot. The character of this track, with a lot of long corners, and needing a lot of natural turning, is not the most strong part of our bike, even though we have improved it in the last months. I think we managed quite well.”

Rea may well be more of a difference than he has ever been in the whole Kawasaki package, and once again he was clearly the best Ninja rider, with his team-mate Lowes now fully fit but only finding a set up to go ninth, seventh and eighth.

The Kawasaki is now outgunned by at least two other bikes in sheer power, some other bikes seem to have even nicer chassis, and almost all the other bikes look to be more modern and higher potential on paper. The Kawasaki may still be the most rounded package but as Bautista showed last year, it can be consistently beaten if the other guys get it right every race.

Rea was asked how badly he needs a new model for next year. “I am praying every night for that,” he stated.

That would be the best Christmas present I could ever imagine. But in the current climate, with what we are going through right now in the world, I do not know what is going to happen. I cross my fingers, but it is out of my hands, it is a Japanese decision, so let’s see.”

Power is the obvious area for improvement, right at the top at least, to stay in the Honda or Ducati orbit, but the chassis is also an area Rea wants to make more competitive in any new model.

“We need to improve the chassis a little bit, especially in the rear of the bike and how it transfers onto the rear. In stop-and-go circuits like Magny-Cours, or Thailand, these corners where you are at like really zero, and then going, the Kawasaki is working really well.

"In all long corners, where you need the transfer to the rear to be smooth, and have a grip platform a little bit higher in the stroke, we are struggling a little bit.

"That is the main focus of our development through the winter for next year. It is very hard to chase that feeling during a race weekend. There is always room to improve but I feel right now we are getting the best out of the package.

"It feels like when the stars align I can win, but it is really easy to see from racing, that when other make a mistake on the lap they can keep the lap time, whereas I get penalised quite a lot. If I run wide it is a real knock on effect for the lap.”

Rea said of his braking problem in the race two – not the same one that he had in Friday in FP1 – “Basically, I felt like the discs were a little bit bent. Every time I used them I had a like a ‘tik-tik-tik-tik’ all in the corners.

"That was the feeling throughout the race but I could deal with that feeling. It was just as soon as I released the brake the front tyre was like chewing gum, and I was coming onto the rear and really struggling, especially into the last corner.”

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