Rea aims to finish in top three
Castrol Honda rider Jonathan Rea says he is looking to build on 2011's ninth placed finish in the Superbike Championship, saying his goal for 2012 is to finish in first place.
Speaking to the official SBK website the Irishman said he was confident that some of the rule changes would work to his team's advantage. Refering specifically to the new one bike rule he said, "My new crew chief is coming from BSB and he's used to the one-bike rule so for sure he has some experience.
"For me it would be a problem only in qualifying, but I think it will be hard work for the mechanics."
"I want to be in the top-3 but my aim is to win the Championship. We have made a lot of improvements so hopefully we can get there," he said.
Rea, who is currently testing with the rest of the team in Qatar said he was looking forward to getting the bike set-up correctly before he took a few weeks off over Christmas.
"Last year the pre-season test was very bad. So we go to Qatar and we get a three day test which is very good.
"The point we need to improve the most is when the bike is on the edge of the tyre and on the Qatari track it is perfect to do so."
"Then in December I go back to Australia with my fiancé, we have an apartment in Melbourne so it's good to go there for training and also for her to get to see all the family.
"During the racing season we travel a lot so it's definitely nice to go there for December and January," he said.