Gino Rea: I want to be back trying to win races again in EWC

The fact that Rea was still in contention for an FIM Endurance World Championship top-three finish at the legendary Belgian track owed plenty to the London-born rider’s refusal to give up.

His F.C.C. TSR Honda France team had been leading after 15 hours of racing, but a broken chain left Rea stranded on track and with no alternative but to push his stricken bike back to the pits, where rapid repairs ensured the recovery charge could begin from outside the top 10.

Third place at Spa ensured Rea and team-mates Mike Di Meglio and Josh Hook arrived in Japan for August’s Suzuka 8 Hours firmly in the EWC title fight. But they were braced for a tough race in the heat and humidity of the Japanese summer – and against the might of several leading local stars and top World Superbike riders.

However, Rea never made it to the race after a crash in Saturday practice left him fighting for his life with serious injuries. As well as his brain trauma, Rea broke two bones in his neck, his left collarbone and a rib. He also suffered bruised lungs and developed pneumonia. There were fears he wouldn’t be able to walk again, let alone ride – if he survived.

Seven months on from that horrendous August day, Rea is not just on the road to recovery after an intense period of rehabilitation, he also has a return to racing – and what will be an emotionally-charged Parade Lap ahead of the 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans next week (15 April) – firmly in his sights. This is what the 33-year-old has had to say of his incredible and heroic recovery.

Where in the world are you Gino and how are you today?“I’m in Spain right now with my wife, Isabella, continuing my training and rehab. I’m doing okay and feeling better each day.”

What stage are you at with your recovery?“At the start we were all very worried because you never know what long-term effect a brain injury can have, so I feel very happy and fortunate to have recovered to where I am today. My training is going really well and my fitness is improving every day. I still need time but it’s going the right way.”

Could you describe a typical day?“My day usually starts with light exercise or yoga in the morning and then there is my main training session of the day around midday. Some days are filled with rehab instead, which is part of the recovery process. We had a nutritionist write his recommended plan for me, basically it was similar to what I was already doing because I’ve always eaten clean in general. Occasionally I have a snack but it’s normally something homemade, so it’s quite good, and my diet consists of fruit and veg and your basic meat.”

To say the last seven months must have been extremely tough for you and your family would be an understatement. How hard has it been?“Yes, the last seven months have been extremely hard for myself and the people around me. I especially feel sorry for them because they’ve had to go through such difficult times with me – my wife especially; Isabella has been amazing with me and I wouldn’t be as strong as I am today without her. And a big thank you to my family who have always been by my side. I also have to thank my manager, Terry Rymer, for all his support.”

The outpouring of support, good wishes and donations has been immense – what does it mean to you?“It means everything to me. The support has been unbelievable and I really, really appreciate every single comment from everyone, so thank you to everyone that has shown support. The donations too were incredible (we plan to close the GoFundMe page at the end of this month), and it’s for this reason that I’ve been able to go through the amount of rehab and had such a rapid improvement, so I’m forever thankful to each and every one of you that contributed.”

What message do you have for your fans and members of the bike racing community?“My most important message is ‘thank you’ to each and every person that has shown me support. It really doesn’t go unnoticed. This goes to each and every fan who has contacted me and to other top professional riders that reached out.”

Your team-mates always reference the role you played in F.CC. TSR Honda France becoming world champion in 2022. What satisfaction does that bring?“It brings the satisfaction of becoming world champions together. I really appreciate their help and enjoyed being team-mates with them, we had some amazing times together which led to becoming champions.”

What memories do you have of the race week in Japan?“Unfortunately, I don’t remember much of being in Japan. I just have some flashback memories of certain places.”

Is there any sense of anger, despair or frustration at what happened to you?“Frustration, yes. It was an unfortunate event which had a big impact on me with an injury that takes time to recover from. It’s a frustrating injury that I need to have patience to get over.”

What’s the plan going forward in terms of short-, mid- and long-term goals?“I want to be back at the same level in general as I was before and for me that means being back at the front and trying to win races again in EWC. EWC is a championship I love and where I think I’ve found my feet. Throughout my career I’m happy being in a championship if I’m competitive and I’ve been competitive in most of them, but in EWC I’ve found a bit of a home and I’ve found a home in Honda and that’s the situation I’d like to be back in.”

How realistic is that prospect of returning to racing at the front in the EWC and how optimistic are you?“I am optimistic at that plan, it just takes time to get there. But, ultimately, I think that time is coming very soon because my progress has probably been better than a lot of people thought it would be. Even the medical people expected it would take longer.  I’ve tried my motocross bike and have taken part in a trackday on a Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade and that was a bit of a surprise to myself and other people around me. It’s difficult to give an exact time but I look forward to more training days to get more feeling for it.”

Your health and fitness are always something you’ve taken seriously – how much has that contributed to your recovery?“My whole life in racing I’ve tried to be as fit as I can and I personally believe it’s always been beneficial for me. And now I’m in the Endurance World Championship that’s very key. In general, it’s helped me, but in situations like this my health and fitness being at such a high level is what’s helped me to recover. The level I was at before was a high level in health and fitness. Your body obviously drops when you have an accident, but you’ve got that base inside you.”

Have you given much thought to life outside racing?“I already have my own race team and this year we’re going to Supersport in the British Superbike Championship. The team is named R4R (Ready 4 Racing) Vision Racing, and that’s based on the coaching that I’d always done before the team started. The team has been going for three or four years. It’s based in the UK. My partner in the team is Vision CPS. They used to be a personal sponsor. I met the owner, Elliott Mumford, when I was doing a guest talk at the same event and I found out he lives in North Cheam near my family home in Epsom, which is in Surrey outside southwest London. His son Alfie has a rare syndrome – but he’s a really cute and strong kid – and they do lots of fundraising for him and children with special needs through the One Step At a Time Charity.”

Do you have plans to watch the first race of the EWC season at Le Mans?“I am going to Le Mans to do a Parade Lap and to support the TSR Honda team. I’m looking forward to meeting my team-mates again and seeing the fans. Honda France are arranging a bike for me to ride in the Parade Lap. I don’t know the spec of the bike, it will be in TSR Honda colours but I don’t have all the details at the moment. It’s going to very exciting but very emotional because I want to be at Le Mans racing, that’s a given. I’ve seen people doing these Parade Laps before after they’ve come back from similar things. I’ve always looked up to them doing it and now it’s me doing it. I feel very appreciative that they’ve allowed me to do it. It’s going to be emotional for me because I can’t believe I’m going to be there and they’ve given me a Parade Lap. But the amount of people that know I’ve had this accident is quite mind-blowing really, I’ve had messages from famous motorcycle racers. The biggest thing why I’m so thankful to everyone who has shown me support is because you realise how much of a small world it actually is and until something like this happens it’s hard to appreciate that. Although the world is so small, the internet is so big and news spreads fast, and I just want to thank everyone and doing this lap will show people what their support has helped me to achieve. And, of course, I will stay for the race and I’ll be supporting the TSR Honda team. I’m looking forward to meeting my team-mates again and seeing the fans.”

Speaking of your team-mates, only recently Mike Di Meglio mentioned your incredible performance at Spa – how do you feel when you get praise like that?“It is very satisfying. It was an amazing race where our podium battle came down to the final 15 minutes of a 24-hour race, and I was able to secure that podium finish which felt amazing then and still does now.”

Looking back, just how difficult was racing in the rain, knowing the final step of the podium was up for grabs?“Although it seemed like horrendous conditions because it was wet, in the corners it was very grippy, I had my elbow touching the kerbs in two or three of the corners. That was the first time I’d raced on Bridgestone tyres in the wet and obviously they were very good. The main problem with the track was braking in a straight line on the racing line, that’s why so many people crashed and I almost did the same. There was a moment when I almost went off at Turn 1. Basically, I was coming up to the lapped riders and when I was on the brakes I didn’t know if I was going to catch them going into the corner or not, so I stayed a bit wide and every other lap I was more to the inside, off the racing line. When you were on the racing line there’s rubber on the ground and normally that rubber gets slippery, so I went on the racing line on that one lap when the backmarkers were coming up and as I was on the brakes the front locked and I was very lucky to feel it go and managed to save it. Mike Di Meglio had the same problem, but he crashed and most other people did crash, but I was very fortunate to save it.”

When you had that moment at Turn 1 did you think that was game over for you?“When I went wide I thought two things, one I’ve just saved the race because I’ve stayed on the bike, but the second thing I thought was I’d ruined the race because I let [Siméon] in front of me. I knew he was a couple of seconds in front and there were backmarkers there so I thought now I just need to get my head down and ride how I know and try to catch him and see what happens, and I managed to catch him up. Looking back, it was the most exciting part of the race, but when you’re in the race I wouldn’t say it was the most exciting because there’s pressure, massive pressure.”

You were essentially trying to stop the home hero from finishing on the podium…“We were battling Xavier Siméon’s SERT team for the championship. I wouldn’t say third place won us the championship, but it contributed to us winning the championship. There was tension and I can understand the frustration. It’s like them coming to Brands Hatch and me losing out on winning on the last lap. But at the time I was so excited and even now, thinking about the race, it just gets you so excited because normally you don’t have a finish like that, especially between two championship contenders in a 24-hour race. I was fortunate enough to be in that situation and come out well.”

While you got plenty of praise for securing the final podium place, it’s easy to forget that you did so much to keep the team in the race when the bike broke…“We were leading the race into the night and had a comfortable lead when the chain snapped, which firstly was a surprise but we were winning the race so it was the worst timing. I pushed the bike as far as I could but when I got to the long left before the end of the lap they pulled me off the track and the worst nightmare happened. I got in the back of the van, I was holding the bike up in pitch black and there was no service road going directly to the garage at that point so the van went through the forest in the dark, basically through the woods and I was almost falling over in the back of the van holding onto the bike and trying not to let it fall over because I didn’t want to ruin it. When I got back to the garage we just thought it must be race over because the chain had snapped and I’d just lost 10 minutes in the back of a van. The team managed to get the bike fixed, we were in 11th place and we thought, ‘alright, let’s get back out’ and from there it was a battle back to get third.”

After the race was suspended due to the oil leak on track, were you worried the race wouldn’t restart and you wouldn’t be able to get back up to third?“The annoying thing is we were in third and we had nearly a lap lead on SERT when we pitted in for a change of tyres and fuel. As we pitted, they went in front of us and they were in third but they were about to pull in a lap or two later and we would have been back in third. But as we pulled in and went back out that’s when the red flag came out. Because of that timing we was in fourth but a lap or two later we would have been back in third.

“I don’t know what happened but it was decided that was it, the race was over and we were in fourth. But we were like, ‘hold on, we were in third’ and we were absolutely gutted along with the team owner, the mechanics, my team-mates. We couldn’t believe it because we were winning the race, had a problem, dropped down to 11th but then got back to third. Then the race got red-flagged and we were back in fourth. We basically packed our bags and I was picked to go out for a Parade Lap, just for the fans at the end of the race and then come back in the garage.

“It was 30 minutes to 1 o’clock and because we hadn’t been told anything, my wife made me a bowl of porridge. I barely eat during a 24-hour race but I was eating my porridge and my mechanic, who is actually a Showa technician who lives near me in Spain funnily enough, was all serious, he was like ‘you’ve got to race, you’ve got to race, they’ve changed the plan, you’ve got to finish the race’. I was almost sicking my food up and I thought right, ‘they’ve picked me to do it, everyone else had packed their suitcases ready to go home’.

“I went out and was excited because we were in fourth but my own mentality was ‘I’m getting third’. The first and second teams were something like eight laps in front but I was restarting the race right behind third. Xavier Siméon is a Moto2 race winner and has always been good in the wet but I was like, ‘I’m going to do this’. I was very self-confident. As soon as the safety car pulled in, I went for it and I went from fourth to second in two corners, overtook the leader, battled with him and had the big moment when I lost the front and came back from there. It was a pile of excitement – and the porridge was almost sicked up! It’s my normal breakfast but after a 24-hour race when you are eating energy gels and different foods I wanted a bowl of porridge, but I went from eating that to getting my leathers on and all of a sudden getting back in the race and being on the podium, which made it all the better. It was a great battle and we cut down the points in the championship standings to make it open, and possible to win, and we did!”

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