News

Although Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) has ridden at Aragon before his experiences were limited a few cold and damp laps early in the 2011 pre-season. This means that the challenge he faces this weekend will be much different from most of his rivals in the 2012 eni FIM Superbike World Championship.

Rea's less-than full speed laps of the 5.344km circuit, located some 300km from Barcelona, will nonetheless be useful to the rider now based in the Isle of Man, as he will face strong competition from last year's Motorland race winners, Max Biaggi and Marco Melandri.

The four cylinder riders should have fun this weekend, given the long straight at Aragon, but the entire circuit demands much of man and machine, especially as the ambient temperatures are expected to be very high from first practice to raceday.

Said Rea, "I'm really excited about Aragon this weekend because it's new for me and I love the challenge of riding new circuits. I just did a few laps for some photos in really unpleasant conditions in January last year but the layout is really cool and, although I've done no laps at race speed, there are a lot of different characteristics and the track is quite fun."

Rea knows he will have to possibly sacrifice sheer lap times for data-gathering excursions and circuit acclimatization in the early practice sessions, making this an unusual race for one of the more experienced riders in the SBK class this year. He stated, "We'll need to make the most of each practice session and gather as much data as we can to build a bike for the hot conditions that we're expecting on Sunday. As usual, I'll be trying my hardest to get some good results, and I hope that the improvements we've made over the last few weeks will allow us to challenge at the front again."

Rea has recently completed a test session at Assen, his team's home circuit, which means we may even see something new in the overall approach of a team which has seen Rea score two race wins in 2012 already.