JONATHAN Rea says that after the perfect start he had to World Superbike titles defence in Australia, he's taken extra motivation to keep his rivals behind him on track.
The factory Kawasaki rider had a flawless start to this year's championship thanks to a double victory at Phillip Island having fought off Ducati's Chaz Davies in frantic last lap battles.
Rea now heads to Thailand looking to maintain his 100% start at a track he dominated at last year with two wins, pole position and fastest laps, when the Chang International Circuit made its WSBK debut last year.
'Going to Thailand off the back of an incredible start to the season, with a double win in Australia, just gives me a lot of satisfaction – and motivation as well. Motivation to keep the bike at the front,' Rea said.
After World Superbikes debuted its new race weekend format, with race one now taking place on Saturday afternoon and leaving just race two on Sunday, Rea says the change has pushed more importance on Friday's free practice sessions to produce a competitive bike setup.
'Friday is the most important day to understand set-up because on Saturday we are already racing,' he said. 'With the new schedule we have a little bit of a different strategy for our race weekends.
'We were quite lucky in Phillip Island with our pre-event tests so in Thailand we need to make sure we can plan the weekend carefully. Hopefully, come Saturday and Sunday, we can have two good results again.'
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