World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea 'excited' by new challenge at Montmelo | Eugene Laverty 'close to final piece of jigsaw'

The race also holds extra significance for Rea’s Kawasaki Racing Team, which is literally a home round for many of the management and technical staff, with the team’s European headquarters situated a few hundred metres from the main grandstand.

Rea heads into the sixth round this weekend on the back of his defining performance of the season so far, after the 33-year-old sealed a victory and two runner-up finishes at the Teruel round of the series at Aragon, where he moved into the title lead by 36 points from Ducati’s Scott Redding.

With three rounds remaining, the five-time world champion is perfectly poised to tighten his grip on a record sixth consecutive crown, and Rea – as ever – is looking forward to the fight.

“It is a really exciting moment because I grew up watching MotoGP racing at Montmelo and I loved the layout,” he said.

“I played it on the PlayStation and it was always my favourite track. We were lucky to get the chance to test there in the middle of the summer and I felt great with it. I had a smile inside my helmet when I was riding.

“We learned lots of things to help us get ahead in first practice on Friday morning.”

The status of the race as a home round for Rea’s team is also giving the Northern Ireland rider extra motivation to add to his eight victories this season.

Rea said: “Another reason to get excited is that it is the team’s home race. So while we will not have a full ‘squad’ of sponsors and extended family of the crew, we will be racing for them.

“It is an important race for the team, which is based just over the grandstand in Granollers. Of course the target is always to win, so we will put our heads together and work in the same way as we have been doing – preparing the bike to be strong over race distance.

“I am looking forward to the battles it is going to bring.”

Compatriot Eugene Laverty is also feeling optimistic this weekend, with the BMW Motorrad rider confident he is close to finding the ‘final piece of the puzzle’ with the S1000RR to improve his results.

Laverty, who is 15th in the championship, said: “I feel very confident and optimistic ahead of the Barcelona race weekend for two reasons. First off we had a great test at the Catalunya circuit in July and on top of that I feel that we made huge strides forward in the understanding of the BMW S1000RR last time out at Aragon.

“This year my focus has always been aimed towards 20 laps rather than one and finally I’m beginning to reap the fruits of my labour.

“We are now very close to finding that final piece of the puzzle to propel us up the order.”

Race one takes place on Saturday at 13:00 BST. On Sunday, the Superpole race is at 10:00 BST with race two at 14:00 BST.

Meanwhile, four-time British champion Keith Farmer will return at Oulton Park this weekend with the Buildbase Suzuki team.

Farmer underwent surgery after sustaining a shoulder ligament injury during qualifying for the opening BSB round at Donington Park.

The Clogher man will join Kyle Ryde and Gino Rea in a three-pronged attack for Stuart and Steve Hicken’s team at Oulton in Cheshire, where free practice gets underway on Friday.

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