OFFICIAL PROGRAMME of love still and a lot of people support me . I see it . The fan base from back home , they ‘ claim ’ you and look after you , where I feel if I was English I ’ d just be one of another bunch of English lads here . So , I do have that wee bit of differentiation .” Rea is a Superstar in Northern Ireland , of course , but that is also not quite the same as in other countries . “ It ’ s amazing because you ’ ve got hometown heroes that are pretty active in their sport now ,” said Rea . “ Northern Ireland Football captain Steven Davis , or Carl Frampton the boxer , walking out to get his pint of milk in the morning like any other Tom , Dick , and Harry , and be a normal bloke . Nine times out of ten , they ’ ll be completely left alone . One time they might get that kind of a ‘ selfie mate ?’ or whatever , but the nine people have left them alone understand who he is . They ’ ll acknowledge him sort of . Some of that is that they don ’ t want to build you up to be a star . Growing up everybody ’ s hero in motorcycling was Joey Dunlop , and that was because he wasn ’ t a big star . He was a humble champion .” The Reas and the Dunlops have got a great connection . Was your Grandfather not Joey ’ s sponsor , Jonathan ? “ Yeah ,” said Rea . “ The story goes that Joey ’ s won TTs on my grandad ’ s bikes and Bob McMillan was the Honda UK boss at the time . They were all drunk apparently at my grandad ’ s house . My grandad had put Bob against the freezer and told him , “ You need to give Joey this ride !”. I think my grandad had a bit of a temper . His nickname was ‘ Stormy ’ because you could hear him from miles away ! Big ( Dunlop ) connection there .” It is not all challenges and being the potential to be an outsider in coming from ‘ NI ’. “ The positive things about being from there are that motorbikes are still mainstream ,” said Jonathan . “ So , when I win a race this Sunday , that is on BBC , ITV Northern Ireland . It ’ s on the back page of every daily newspaper in Northern Ireland . I think the English lads - they ’ re lucky to get mentioned . Even in the mainstream motorcycle press , like MCN for example . You do an awesome Superbike race weekend and sometimes you won ’ t get a mention . It ’ s the biggest paper in the UK , but if you have BSB and MotoGP™ and you fight for one spread . So it ’ s one of them where back home it ’ s lucky , because people really embrace me and stuff .” Rea has been a racing nomad in many ways , first to the UK , then all over with WorldSSP and WorldSBK , basing himself in the Isle of Man for a long time . Now he is back in Northern Ireland , which actually was not in his long term plan at the start . “ It wasn ’ t , said Rea . “ Mostly I went to Isle of Man , not great talking about it , but Mom and Dad ’ s relationship was horrible at the time , and I actually fled . Pitty ( Andrew Pitt ) was my teammate and we got on really well . I got my first decent contract at Ten Kate and I thought , ‘ you ’ re a pro athlete .’ He was the
My grandad had put Bob against the freezer and told him , “ You need to give Joey this ride !”.
EXCITING CONTENT model athlete . Apart from liking a beer or two , he was the hardest training teammate I ’ ve ever had . Works hard . He ’ s very clever as well . I really got on with him . So I was like , you ’ re my role model . I went to the Isle of Man and he helped set me up . Same year Cal Crutchlow went there as well , in ’ 09 or ’ 10 . It was ’ 09 because Mum broke the news to me , I think it was the last round at Portugal . I did the superbike ride and when we got home she wasn ’ t in the house . She was gone . It was a shit selfish thing to do because I ’ ve got brothers and sisters that lived through a tough period . But I loved it there on the Isle of Man , as much as it was hard work , especially for Tarsh , my wife . I could live in that awning ( said Rea , pointing to the adjacent team ’ s hospitality space at Navarra . “ I don ’ t need a lot in my life . You can put me in Iceland , as long as there ’ s some good people around . So the fact that Isle of Man was isolated , it has shit weather , it ’ s always windy , and barring TT week , like , nothing happens there ! But I quite enjoyed it . Really enjoyed it . When the kids were born , it just became a bit harder work . There was no support . We had no family around . Apart from one of my really close friends , Gav Hunt , living there we had no support . So , when Jake was going into primary school we made the decision together , we ’ re going to go home and put him in school in Northern Ireland . We ’ ll have much more home comforts like family around . That was the driving force in going home .” For the record , it was Jonathan who mentioned Cal Critchlow first , but now he has , we have to ask JR some big questions . When you see what Cal got eventually in MotoGP™ , and what you ’ ve done here , where does that balance now ? The one thing Fogarty always said after he retired was that he wished he had gone to MotoGP™ for a while . You might not be doing that . Do you think in ten years you may go , ‘ damn , wish I had gone to MotoGP™ ? “ No !’ Said Rea before modifying that a little , “ Yes and no . Of course . Cal had a great innings in MotoGP™ . Done well . Won some races . I ’ ll never know what I could do . You can always say what if , or but , or I could , but you never know . I ’ m six-times world champion . I ’ m really enjoying my racing here . I think over there , just even the people , I go there to watch and the paddock atmosphere is completely different . It ’ s stressful . If your face fits , then it ’ s fine , but if your face doesn ’ t fit it can be the loneliest , hardest place in the world . Just ask Redding about that . So , I would never know how I would get on . All I do know is when I went there , it was 8th and 7th and then that race weekend improvement I was ten seconds closer to the race winner in the second weekend . I ’ m sure that learning curve would have just got better and better . But , I wouldn ’ t change it . I wouldn ’ t give back one of my titles for a year in GP . I feel like when I got that chance to replace Casey , it was on a factory Repsol bike - HRC . When I was growing up it was always Repsol with Doohan and so on . They were the team . So , the fact that I got that chance to go and ride one of the best bikes in the world was really nice .”
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