Buildbase Suzuki’s Gino Rea picked up his best ever Bennetts British Superbike Championship result with a fourth place at Donington Park last weekend.
In the opening race of the triple-header, mixed conditions meant that Rea and teammate Kyle Ryde elected to use the intermediate rear tyre on their GSX-R1000s, which, despite costing them time early in the race, allowed them to attack in the closing stages, as they carved through the field, with Rea to finish sixth.
In the second race, Rea hit the front of the field after making a good start, holding the position before dropping some positions, he kept pushing to take a strong fourth place.
In the final race of the day Rea was again fighting up the front, pushing for another fourth place, but just missed out, taking fifth, with three rounds still remaining at Brands Hatch as he bids for his first podium finish in Bennetts BSB.
Rea said: “It was a pretty surreal weekend for me to be fair, and also knowing what we know now and some of the changes we made to the bike again for race three, I think we could have been on the podium.
“For the result in race one I have to give credit to my crew chief; he thought that would be the fastest tyre for the race. Early on I was hanging in there a bit and in some places I wasn’t sure how hard to push, but I tried to ride my own race and not get carried away, knowing it would come to me.
“With the good grid spot for race two I tried to get away with the leaders and sat in second. I was comfortable and thought I had to get to the front and lead my first BSB race. I was struggling in a couple of areas and Josh [Brookes] came by, and then I was forced wide at the Melbourne hairpin by Jason [[O’Halloran]. I was worried from there I’d slip back but I realised I could run at the pace and to finish one second off the podium was still really good.
“We actually made some changes to the bike for race three and I think if we’d had more dry track time and had that setup for race two we’d have been on the podium. We had podium pace in race three but didn’t get away with the leading group and ended up battling for fourth. But it was a great weekend for me and thanks to the team for giving me the opportunity to show my potential and for putting a great bike underneath me.”