Change of attitude brings change of fortunes for Rea
Added on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Change of attitude brings change of fortunes for Rea
British rider Jonathan Rea revealed that was simply a change of attitude that was behind his turnaround of fortunes at the Nurburgring on Sunday, as he recovered from a disappointing first race to take his second win of the season.
After starting from second on the grid, the Northern Irish rider finished a disappointing fourth in the opening race of the WSB round in Germany on Sunday.
But whilst many riders in the paddock would have gone running to the chief mechanic with an extensive list of tweaks, Rea revealed that the team didn’t make a single change to the bike ahead of race two. Instead, it was a change of attitude that brought about the race two victory.
“Apart from the issues with my number one bike in the first part of race one, I had a real problem with turn three and messed up the race,” claimed Rea. “I was a bit disappointed with fourth and was really motivated to ride better in race two.
“The guys sat me down in between races and gave me an instruction manual on how to win. We changed nothing on the bike and I tried to ride my own race and mind my own business.”
Rea also gave his view of the incident with Noriyuki Haga in the closing stages, which forced the Japanese rider out of the second race and severely hampered his title chances.
“I got a really bad start and had to get a bit aggressive on people in turn one. Haga ran quite wide and I went on the inside and, although I didn’t see him I felt a big bang and only found out he crashed after the race.
“I’m sorry for that but don’t think it was my fault and I wouldn’t blame him. I gave it all I could in the race and the package was very strong today so I can’t thank the team enough.
“I knew I had to make no mistakes on the last lap because Ben was so close, so breaking the lap record then was great. But it’s really a testament to how strong the bike is now and hopefully we can take this momentum on to the next race.
