Rea, Lowes set to test ‘some stuff for 2024’ at Aragon WorldSBK test

The six-time WorldSBK champion has been heavily linked with a switch to Yamaha for next season, but as it stands he is set to stay with the manufacturer that he’s one every one of his championships with.

The same is true for Lowes who signed a new one-year extension during his home round at Donington Park, meaning Kawasaki, bearing a surprise move from Rea, will remain unchanged for a fifth consecutive campaign. 

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Locked in a battle for third in the series standings with Andrea Locatelli, Rea knows the two-day test could be vital for the remainder of the year, especially as Aragon follows the next round at Magny-Cours.

"This Aragon test comes at a really valuable time because with Magny Cours fast approaching after a long summer break," said Rea. "It's always beneficial to get back into the swing of things and into the flow of riding my ZX-10RR. 

"I will be trying to get the rhythm back but also have one eye on the Motorland race weekend that comes soon after the Magny Cours race. 

"So it's all about trying to build into this last part of the season and being strong. We'll continue testing some items that we've previously tried. 

"And with one day left on my testing allocation we only have one day to use. We expect hot weather, which is also good to test in to try to further improve our bike settings. 

"We will just keep working. The next three rounds are going to come in quick succession, so it's important to hit the ground running. 

"We’ll see what the engineers from KMC have for us and we will get stuck into the test."

For Lowes, the British rider also has one day of testing left which means test rider Florian Marino will be the only rider on circuit for the KRT team on Tuesday.

Lowes added: "There will be some stuff for 2024 that we are testing, just some ideas. So that will take half a day because we have only one full day of testing left. 

"The other half of that day will be just getting back up to speed and trying a couple of things on the rear of the bike, to try to improve edge grip. 

"Marcel, my crew chief has a couple of ideas and I've been speaking quite a lot with him about a plan to improve that. Hopefully the conditions will be hot. 

"That's the target and I am looking forward to getting back into action. It was not the best round in Autodrom Most for me recently, but we’ve got four rounds left. I want to get back on the podiums to finish the year strongly. 

"There are some good tracks coming up for me and the Kawasaki. We haven't met our goals at the start of this year, so a good end to this year will be what's needed to set us up for next year as well. 

"We have one eye on 2024, one eye on the final four rounds of this season and a couple of ideas that Marcel has to improve things. 

"So, it's gonna be a busy day of testing as we only have one day left. It’s gonna be nice to get back out on the bike before Magny Cours."