Last year, Gino Rea was riding a wave. His remarkable efforts in the 24H SPA EWC Motos, refusing to give up after a broken chain cost the team their lead and lost them 10 minutes, and a wet-weather masterclass to take the fight for the podium down to the very last minutes, well and truly kept F.C.C. TSR Honda France in the World Championship title hunt going into the Suzuka 8 Hours.

Confidence for the 2017/2018 season World Champions was high, but Gino’s world was turned upside down on Saturday 6 August 2022. A crash during practice at Suzuka left the Englishman fighting for his life, in a coma for seven days with a very unclear medical prognosis.

Seven months on, defying expectations and medical timeframes, he’s been back on a bike again and is looking forward to returning to the 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans this weekend, 14-16 April. We sat down with last year’s EWC World Championship winner at the opening round of British Superbikes.

The parade lap

“First of all, it’s a pleasure to be back at a race [BSB] and I’m looking forward to doing the parade lap at Le Mans and representing Honda and the TSR team. The opportunity came around and I couldn’t say no because I’ve always looked at these type of things, parade laps, in the past as something to look up to and admire. I never thought I’d be in a position to do it myself so to be asked to do it feels very nice.

“It feels honourable to be back in this position and a little bit unexpected, because I was in a coma at the time, people were asking ‘where’s it going to go’, ‘am I going to be able to leave Japan again or not?’ To be able to come back and do a parade lap is a great honour and I really appreciate it. The recovery process has probably been a bit quicker than the medical people expected it to be.

Getting back on a bike

“I’ve already ridden a bike last week in Cartagena on a track day – a CBR Fireblade. It went really well, and by the end of the day I felt really good on the bike again. I want to come back riding again so it was great for that, but the idea really was that I didn’t want to arrive in Le Mans and expect to ride a bike around a track without having ridden one before, so the idea was for a shakedown, but it was more than that in the end and I had a good feeling on the bike. It was a happy day.”

Conflicted

“The best way for me to describe how I feel about it – it’s difficult because I’m very positive in the fact that I’m in that position where I’m able to do the parade lap, and be there and support the team, but there’s a lot of frustration because I want to be there racing. We won the championship last year and I want that number 1 plate. So there’s a lot frustration. Not really nerves though. Probably more nerves riding last week on the track day because the first time back you really don’t know what to expect after what I’d been through and such a long time off the bike. That went well and that’s helped my preparation for Le Mans.”

Recovery and return

“The most difficult part to predict is the time. What I want to do is basically the same as any other motorcycle racer. I want to return to being competitive in the championship. Being here at BSB brings back a lot of memories. It’s a championship where I won races and becoming World Champion last year in EWC is something that I want to return to. The difficult part is knowing when. I don’t want to undersell myself. I always like to live up to expectation, and that’s the goal. To return to racing when I’m ready. It’s a little bit difficult because I want to return to EWC, but if the opportunity to return to BSB came up it’s something I wouldn’t rule out if the opportunity arose.

“There wasn’t so much of a doubt, but there were question marks. It’s thinking ‘will I be strong enough, fit enough, mentally able to return to where I want?’ The want has always been there, and never really any doubts about what I wanted, but those questions marks were there.

“Even though we compete in such a dangerous sport, you never think that’s going to happen to you. We always know the risks, but you never think you could go through that. The people who do are a second slower, unfortunately. That’s motorcycle racing all over, and any sort of professional sports. If you think negatively, those thoughts are going to stay in the back of your head and they’re going to slow you down.”

Support

“I’d like to say thank you to my wife, Isabella, my family who have been beside me during the whole rehab process, and a big thanks to Honda and the F.C.C. TSR Honda France team who have supported me throughout the whole process and helped us win the championship last year of course.

“Fujii-san has been really great about the whole situation. With his friend he flew to my parent’s house in England and got a taxi from the airport all the way just to come and see me and present the championship medal and see how I was getting on. He went back to Japan and when he came back to Europe recently he flew from Barcelona to Alicante to see me again so that support feels really nice.”

Reigning World Champions F.C.C. TSR Honda France get their 2023 title defence underway on Thursday 13 April with Qualifying Practice for the 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans, France. 

Gino Rea will ride his parade lap 35mins before the start of the race on Saturday 15 April at 1425h local time. The lights go out to start the first round of EWC 2023 at 1500h local time.