Round Four Approaches For KRT
The expansive layout of Motorland Aragon will welcome the official KRT duo of championship leader Jonathan Rea and his race-winning team-mate Alex Lowes for the fourth round of the FIM Superbike World Championship this coming weekend, between 28 and 30 August.
Rea and Lowes have good reason to look forward to an event that will signify the halfway point of the season, given their strong pace in recent testing at the 5.077km long Motorland circuit.
After the return to racing following almost five months without points scoring action recently Rea has taken the championship lead for the first time, after a superb winning triple performance at the Portimao round. Jonathan has a four point advantage over second placed rider Scott Redding in the championship standings.
Leaving his first race weekend as a Kawasaki rider in the championship lead after round one at Phillip Island Lowes has continued his learning process at a strong pace ever since. Partly thanks to his race two win in Australia in February, Alex currently sits fourth overall in the championship fight.
With the recent Motorland Aragon test sessions featuring hot conditions that helped him learn more about his Ninja ZX-10RR Lowes is enthused by his opportunity to get back onto the podium he has stood on twice already this season. Alex was third in the Tissot-Superpole 10-lap ‘sprint’ race at Motorland last year.
Rea has scored three race wins at Motorland, and a total of 12 podiums all-in at the impressive venue in the hills near the historic town of Alcaniz. Since he joined Kawasaki in 2015 Jonathan has scored a podium finish in every Aragon race he has contested.
WorldSBK action starts at the generously appointed Motorland circuit on Friday 28 August, and as usual there will be three WorldSBK races in all. Race one, over 18 laps, takes place on Saturday 29 August, the Tissot-Superpole sprint race on Sunday morning and then finally a full distance race two, on Sunday afternoon.
Given the peculiarities of running a global motorsport series during a global pandemic the Aragon round this coming weekend will be followed just a week later after by the Teruel round, albeit at the same Motorland venue. The fifth event of the rescheduled eight round championship will take place between 4 and 6 September.
Jonathan Rea, stated: “I am excited to go to Aragon especially as we have done a lot a lot of riding in the last few weeks, at Jerez, Portimao and then the recent Aragon test, so I feel really good on the bike. That test was an opportunity to ride the circuit in hot summer conditions. We have not done that in a number of years, because we use it as a winter test track. The bike was working really well in the heat, which confirmed our new base setting. Looking to this weekend itself the temperatures could be cooler than we had at the test – maybe in the mid-twenties on raceday – which will be nicer on the body but may throw us a curve ball. So, we need to make sure we are prepared on Friday to get a set-up that is user friendly, fast and consistent. The target will be to win races.”
Alex Lowes, stated: “We had a test at Motorland recently and I am looking forward to the races even more now. At the recent Portimao race, and a little bit in Jerez, due to the vast differences in track temperature compared to the winter, it was almost like learning things again on the Friday. With a race on Saturday you are almost straight into it. So for this round I am looking forward to continuing on the hard work from the Aragon test. We had a good feeling with the bike and the target for me is to get back on the podium with the Ninja ZX-10RR. Motorland is a track I really enjoy and I cannot wait to get out there again.”
Xavi Fores (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) will be racing in his native country once more this weekend, as will the experienced replacement rider for the injured Sandro Cortese, Roman Ramos (Outdo Kawasaki TPR). Maximilian Scheib (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) takes his Ninja ZX-10RR back to Motorland to race after attending the recent tests with Ramos.
