about getting the minimum wage deal . Then you start throwing in having to go home all the time and paying your personal insurance so that if you get an injury you can get looked after . There ’ s not much money . Then at 17 you can ’ t go home every week . You have to go and bunk on a mechanic ’ s floor or ask the team manager can he put me in with a team sponsor or just live somewhere . It ’ s just a wee bit more comfortable for the local kids . There was a year when maybe I was running away from stuff at home as well when Mom and Dad ’ s relationship was breaking down , but Phil Marron , Toprak ’ s crew chief , him and my mechanic at the time , I spent time between there and Craig Jones ’ house when him and Karen were together . I stayed with Jonesy for a bit . I used to sleep on Phil Marron ’ s floor in a little two-up , two-down shoebox in Louth . That was my life through the sort of end of ’ 05 . Then in ’ 06 I rented a house along with Phil , Paul Williamson who is crew chief at Honda UK now . I think he ’ s Glenn Irwin ’ s crew chief . Big Stan - who is the Petronas Moto2 and 3 ’ s Carl Meakin . We all lived in a house together . At 17 , 18 , that ’ s what I was doing . 200 quid a month in rent straight to Phil and them boys and put in the kitty to pay the rent .” Jonathan Rea has long ago started to make significant money from racing and on track he has eclipsed the record of any rider in WordSBK , even the next best in statical terms , Carl Fogarty . But there is no escaping the fact that
Fogarty was and is a bigger ‘ star ’ than Rea . Does Rea think he would be a bigger personality in UK sport if he came from somewhere in England ? For Rea , it ’ s not that clear cut . “ Not really ,” he said , “ I don ’ t have that big star personality . I find it sometimes , in certain circumstances … for example when Tom Sykes was my teammate , would go to sponsor events in Italy and they ’ d have crowds cheering you . Tom embraced that and he had the big bravado . I actually got pretty anxious in them situations . I enjoy putting my helmet on , and then I feel like I ’ m in my Superhero . But when I don ’ t have the helmet , I might as well be standing in front of hundreds of people naked . Sometimes in the Paddock Show or whatever . That ’ s where I come from . I was never allowed to get ahead of yourself . If you ’ re a dick , you ’ re dick . Your mates would give you a clip on the ear . I remember winning a British championship motocross race at Desert Martin in my home race . I went over this huge tabletop and did a big one-hander to the crowd . My dad pulled me aside after and told me that if he ever seen me celebrating like that again … I don ’ t know what the threat was , but he wasn ’ t very happy . I think I ’ m the same . I think crowds fell in love with Foggy , but that was a love / hate . You have people that thought Foggy was a w **** r , but you had people that idolised him . Just look through social media and stuff . On a neutral forum like a Superbike Facebook or whatever , if you look at comments , for how dominant I ’ ve been in this sport I have a lot
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