Jonathan Rea explains crashes and nerves after unusual win on dirt track

Jonathan Rea has reacted to his unusual first win on a Yamaha, which came on a dirt track.

Rea was among the big names to enter a charity dirt bike race on Sunday at the EICMA trade show in Milan.

Riding a YZ450F, modified for a dirt track, Rea beat contemporary riders (plus Ryan Vickers, who was third) to claim the win.

The format was a series of head-to-head time trials.

Rea beat fellow World Superbike Championship rider Vierge first, then Pata Yamaha teammate Andrea Locatelli.

He beat Vickers, who will join WSBK in 2025, in the semi-final then World Supermoto star Elia Sammartin in the final.

“I didn’t really know what to expect heading into the races as I haven’t ridden a lot of flat track before but I knew I was going to give it a good go,” Rea said.

“I felt good from the first practice, Yamaha Motor Italia had put together a really awesome GYTR-kitted YZ450F for us and the track was fairly easy to learn, even if it did take a couple of crashes!

“I felt really good in my first race against Vierge, although from the first laps I was getting really bad arm pump like I’ve not had in years so I knew it was going to be a challenge.

“I was actually really nervous coming here to ride, as anything can happen at these end of season things but my racing brain took over and each race I did I got faster!

“The final was really close and Sammartin was riding really well and made no mistakes, so I was pretty pleased to cross the line to take the win, to be on top of the podium was really nice!”

It was his first win of any kind since swapping Kawasaki for Yamaha.