Jonathan Rhea has completed its final two days of WorldSBK pre-season testing at the same Phillip Island circuit that will host the start of the 2023 Superbike season in a few days' time. The Kawasaki rider finished in fifth position in the combined general classification, after experiencing two minor crashes.
The 4,445km-long Australian oceanfront circuit delivered warm, dry weather as the 22 WorldSBK riders made their final preparations to face the challenge of the opening round of the World Championship Superbike. A strong gusty breeze coming off the sea complicated things on the final day, with the best track conditions for grip being confined to the morning session.
With some improvements made to the Ninja ZX-10RR with variable intake newly approved this season, both KRT drivers worked to maximize performance in real race conditions, and ensure their tires will last the full race distance on the most difficult circuit on the calendar in terms of tire wear. Jonathan Rhea suffered relatively slow crashes at Turn #4 on each day of testing, but was able to continue at a brisk pace after stopping to make repairs to his Ninja ZX-10RR. He completed 38 laps in the final practice session of the afternoon, but his best lap of 1'30.716 came in the morning of the final day.
Attention now turns to the start of the 2023 season itself, with the opening round at Phillip Island taking place from February 24-26. As always, there will be three WorldSBK races for spectators to enjoy, two full-distance races and a ten-lap Superpole race on Sunday morning.
Jonathan Rhea : " Today we tried a 2022 spec bike versus the 2023 spec bike in the afternoon session. There are positives and negatives in both cases, but I preferred to stick with the 2023 bike. Unfortunately, while doing a race simulation, around the 14th lap, I got caught out in the fourth corner . The wind was blowing in gusts, it was coming from the sea, there was a lot of dirt on the track, and, clearly, I was attacking at the limit. I had very positive feelings during this long run and I was able to stay within 1'31 per lap. This pace is the one I need to have to fight for the podium. After that we tried the SC0 rear tire because Pirelli asked me to do a longer run to evaluate how it would perform in the Superpole race. Our tire performance has been good and from an electronics point of view I'm really happy with the progress we've made as a team. I am more satisfied with the bike than yesterday. There is clearly potential with the new bike and we must continue to work to extract it. We have taken a step forward compared to last year, I feel that, although I still have problems on the bumpy sections of the track, for example in turns 7, 8 and 9. I feel like a passenger on a motorcycle there. We'll have to deal with it on Friday. For the race weekend, I think we can fight for the podium. »
Riba pears (Jonathan Rea’s team leader): “ We did a lot of laps in practice and we were up and down, but it will be different in the race. It was windy here and Jonathan had two falls, so we have to analyze and understand what happened, of course. For the rest, we know that this track is very demanding, especially to keep the rhythm until the end. So that's what we mainly focused on, to make the tire wear more linear from start to finish. For the race weekend we have to put everything in place and we have enough data. We have all the information from the Jerez and Portimão tests with the elements we have this year, so we will try to put everything together and get the best of the package. »
Combined results WSBK Superbike Test Phillip Island:
Combined results WSBK Superbike Test Phillip Island J2: 
Classification credit: Worldsbk.com
