Seeing Jonathan Rea in Jerez, unable to compete in what would have been his last WSBK race, due to the crash he suffered on Sunday morning in the Superpole Race, was not the fair way to put an end to the most brilliant sporting career in the history of WSBK. Although this untimely fall gives even more value to what has been achieved, since no one has given anything to Jonathan Rea who, many times, had to dance with the ugliest.
And “Johnny” went up to WSBK with the Honda Ten Kate, which was a clear dominator in Supersport, but despite being the official Honda team they did not have the most competitive motorcycle.
He found it “on the rebound” because he was in Supersport when, for the last race of the season and having secured the runner-up position, they promoted him to Superbike to cover the loss of Kenan Sofuoglu. His performance was brilliant in Portimao, qualifying third in the Superpole and achieving a best result of fourth place.
Despite not having the best tools and already in 2009 as a permanent driver, throughout the season he began to show his true potential. In Kyalami, after fighting several races for the podium, he achieved it in the second race in South Africa. From that moment on, the legend began to be forged, because after another podium in Salt Lake (USA), he achieved his first victory in the second Misano race, and all in his first season.
For six seasons he was at Honda, with a CBR with which it was really difficult to stand out. But he achieved it, at least, in a timely manner, although his motorcycle became outdated year after year, making things more difficult for the Northern Irishman, who still continued to show his talent based on results.
In 2009 two victories and eight podiums, 2010 four victories and ten podiums, 2011 another two victories and five podiums, 2012 two and six respectively, 2013 one victory and four podiums and the best year, curiously, was the last with four victories, nine podiums and a third place in the championship.
But the best was yet to come and in 2015 he moved to the official Kawasaki team, with a ZX-10R that had proven effective in the hands of Tom Sykes, who had won the title in 2013 to be runner-up in 2014. Rea’s communion with the Ninja was immediate, winning the first race in Australia to, from that moment on, lay the foundations for what were six perfect years.
From that first race until the end of the 2020 season were incredible years for Rea. Six consecutive seasons winning the championship, which catapulted him to the level of legend he is today. Each year, and even with a motorcycle that on some occasions was clearly inferior to that of his rivals, he managed to get the most out of it and more to achieve the titles of 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. No one in history had achieved more than four, Carl Fogarty, but also doing it consecutively is something so extraordinary that it will be difficult to see it again.
Of course, starting in 2021 things got complicated. The ZX-10R was no longer as efficient and all we have to do is compare Rea’s results with those of the team’s second bike. But he managed to add new victories in the races and fight for the 2021 and 2022 titles clearly, to finish runner-up after Razgatlioglu in the first, and third after Bautista and Toprak in the second. His last year with Kawasaki was not so brilliant and although he finished third overall, he could only achieve one victory, which in the end was his last.
2024 and 2025 have not been Rea’s best years. But it has been closing the circle, because he has once again found himself with a machine that is not very competitive with respect to his rivals, so he has had to fight, make an effort, go to the limit and, unfortunately, get injured like in his Honda days.
He didn’t always have the most competitive bike, but Jonathan Rea got oil out of every situation
With all this, Jonathan Rea’s numbers are incredible, especially thanks to his time at Kawasaki, but without overlooking his time at Honda. And he retires with a total of 476 races in WSBK, something that no other driver has achieved. But also, in 410 of those races he has scored points.
He has traveled 36,969 kilometers in WSBK, he has done 8,172 laps, he has led 2,013 of them, he has added 6,382.5 points… all of which are already historical records. But we must add that he has been on the podium 264 times, that is, 55.46% of his races and, at the same time, 26.37% of all races in the history of WSBK that started when Rea was one year old. In the same way, he has 104 fastest laps in the race, 44 pole positions (the second in history after Sykes’ 51).
And at the end, to complete an incredible story, 119 victories appear in his record. He achieved 15 with Honda, the remaining 104 with Kawasaki, and he is the only rider to surpass the barrier of 100 wins. An incredible and long sporting career that shows that records are there to be broken, although it will not be easy to surpass the figures left by the greatest of all the drivers in the history of WSBK.
