Cadwell chaos brings Rea down to earth

BY GILES SPENCER
giles@slpmedia.co.uk

Cadwell Park proved a weekend Tooting born motorcycle racer Gino Rea would rather forget with only one finish and five points to his name in round six of the British Superbike Championship.

The Buildbase Suzuki rider qualified with a time of 126.831 to put himself on the back of the fourth row in twelfth, just 0.819 seconds off pole.

Away from the lights for Saturday’s 14 lap sprint race and Rea made up two places to tenth before disaster struck on lap four as the notorious Mountain section claimed another victim as the South Londoner clipped the raised inside curb on entry and ended up sliding into the gravel whilst battling with the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki of Rory Skinner.

Starting eleventh for Saturday’s first 18 lap race, Rea dropped a place on the opening lap before quickly regaining the position to settle into a battle with BMW mounted, Bradley Ray.

Unfortunately for Rea, lightning struck twice and the 31 year old crashed out again, losing the front on the left-hander before the Mountain on lap ten from a six rider battle and the good possibility of a strong top ten finish.

With the sun coming out for the final race, Rea got a good start to keep his eleventh place over the first lap, settling in behind Andrew Irwin before taking the BMW man as they entered lap four.

A hard pass by Irwin at half race distance lost Rea momentum allowing the Kawasaki of Ryan Vickers to take advantage and go past too.

Despite a final charge it was not enough as Rea took the flag in eleventh, only 0.286 seconds behind Vickers.

Shane Byrne’s Sixty Seven Sports Management rider, Bradley Ray fared slightly better with thirteenth and two eighth place finishes respectively.

Rea said, “It’s been an up and down weekend really. Started off quite well in the Thursday evening test session. We had wet and dry conditions and I was sixth fastest.

“Qualifying wasn’t so bad, I did my best times around Cadwell but the times were so close from fourth down to fifteenth, there was really nothing in it.

“Race one on Saturday I was in a good position, I felt quite fast but as I went into the right turn at the bottom of the Mountain my engine casing hit the curb and made me crash. Luckily I got a good lap in to start eleventh for race two (Sunday’s first race).

“I had a good start and was in the group that closed up to the front group from fourth or fifth to tenth and felt pretty confident I could make some progress towards the end of the race but crashed on the left turn before the Mountain. I was struggling in some places and trying to make it up on the brakes going in and just tucked the front.

“We made a little change to the bike for the last race and wanted to bring it home but at the same time really wanted to get in that top ten.

“I was in the top ten battle for a while but was in a collision with Irwin. He hit me quite hard and I was lucky not to have an accident but we lost touch with the group up ahead which was the big battle up to fifth. My pace was similar to theirs but I just didn’t have the track position after that incident.

“I battled for tenth but just got pipped by Vickers and ended up eleventh. We’ve got a few ideas of where we can improve and we’re going to work on them at Snetterton.”

The next round of the championship will be held at Snetterton in Norfolk on the weekend of the 3-5th September.

Photos: Bonnie Lane