think that far ahead, but I do feel that
little bit of a jab from the missus that
one day ‘I’ll do the talking’ and we’ll be
headed back to Australia…
You could always have the best of
both worlds. Spend your winters in
Australia and back to Europe for the
summer!
Yeah that would be the key. To try and
get somewhere nice and ideally paid
off in Europe so you can sort of leave
it as a second home really. I’ve always
pictured having the ranch with the MX
track and what not. I just hope that
wherever I end up that will be what it
is! I hope Jake is into MX as well so
that I can be the MX dad that actually
rides with him. I would get more of
a buzz from that than winning any race!
Would you like to see Jake follow
your footsteps into schoolboy MX?
No not really. It’s just that one of my
dreams would be to have a really nice
pad, with a nice MX track, where I
could roll my bike out of the workshop
with my son and just go riding and
have fun! I don’t know if I want him
to get into it because there’s such a
small percentage of riders who make
it. It’s worthwhile when you make it,
but when you don’t quite get there
and you throw everything at it to try,
to the point where you and everybody
around you are broke; your family, your
sponsors – it’s not so great! I’ve seen
it first-hand with my little brother trying
to do Irish short circuits by himself.
He threw all his money at it. I mean
he worked all week just to go racing!
Also one of my best mates on the Isle
of Man, Gavin Hu nt, was doing British
Superstock at a high level. He was a
good rider but he would work all week
for a thousand quid or whatever and
then he would blow it all on a weekend
of racing. At the end of the season he
would just do it all again the following
year! It is the harsh reality of our sport.
I got really, really lucky with a good
opportunity and I had to run with it. I
got lucky, but for those who don’t get
that opportunity it’s very tough!
Thanks Jonathan.
Cheers Michael. T
/JonathanReaOfficial
@jonathanrea
@jonathan_rea
£ Jonathan celebrates the
first race win of the 2015
season