THE SUPERBIKE KING
We sat down with Jonathan Rea, to get his honest take on World Superbikes, life in the fast lane and lost opportunities in MotoGP…
H e might be the most successful rider in World Superbike history, but J onathan Rea’s career has had more ups and downs than an Easyjet flight to Malaga, making his Foggy-crushing record of 6 0 race wins undeniably impressive. Y et even so, those of us with a short memory might think of the World Superbike C hampionship as a tedious procession with the Northern Irishman in front, followed not-so-closely by a chasing pack of desperados. But between horrendous injuries, battling on average machinery and years of tireless prep, Rea has worked barbarically hard at creating a pretty impressive legacy. H e might not have the charisma of Marc Marquez , the fanatical support of Valentino Rossi or the brutally alluring nature of C arl Fogarty, but he is just as fast on two wheels as any of those. And surprisingly, when I got to sit down with him over tea and cakes, he was way more brutally honest than I’d ever have expected the softly-spoken champ to be...
Easing in
When you get 2 0 minutes to chill out and chat with a factory rider, it’s all about picking your words carefully so you can get the real info – and not the P R bullsh* t. This meant that before we got into the nitty gritty, I had to get a bit of background on Rea, and paint a picture on how he ended up being so successful. So, having read that J onathan never actually wanted to race on short circuits (and was a self-confessed failed motocross racer), the first question was to see if he ever saw himself racing on a world level on tarmac. “To be honest I wanted to race motocross, it was a bit of a decision when I was 15 years old and my dad had pretty much lost the appetite for MX as we were travelling the length and breadth of the UK from Ireland most weekends and just knocking on the door of race wins, but to make the next step I needed a full investment, but as we weren’t rich it wasn’t going to happen.
It made it worse as all my rivals were being home schooled and heading off to Europe and America to go race. To make it, I needed to find a lot of money to buy into a team so I had a go at entering the Red Bull Rookies scheme on tarmac alongside D aniel C ooper, and that ended up being my first step into road racing. Even during my first year I wanted to go back to motocross but it was just too hard getting to the top without the money. Things would’ve been pretty different if I would’ve gone that route, eh! ”
D amn straight they would, and you could really tell that Rea has worked bloody hard to get where he is today – it wasn’t just handed to him on a plate by rich parents which is refreshing to know. The motocross aspect really surprised me though, which is why I asked if he’d ever fancy trading road bikes for dirt again – constantly winning must be getting a bit tedious, mustn’t it?
“Funnily enough, I do a bit! The weekend after I won the World Superbike championship in 2 015 I entered into a Manx National C hampionship race and finished second to a World Enduro rider, so I was pretty happy with that. Maybe I love it because there’s no pressure; you can stick a bike in the back of a van and just race without any agro. I’m just not good enough to do it properly, and I’ve got a family to support, so it’ll stay something of a hobby” .
With this little nugget of honesty and the first cup of tea consumed, it was time to delve into something a little darker, and I’m not talking about Boothy’s sex life – I’m talking about the current state of World Superbikes… although both could do with a bit of help. “It’s a difficult subject, and I know that the organisers are doing their best to get more people through the gates but the rule changes for me just don’t really sit well; penalising the top guys rather than helping teams and riders that are struggling. It’s a difficult position to be in, and I know the championship has its issues but I’m having a great time, and still love it. It’s getting better, which is good.”
So just how hard it is being a rider in World Superbikes, and does he still find it worthwhile – especially with the pressure of being a number one pilot for a factory. “The perks are absolutely incredible, but the job itself can be really tough at times. When you’re employed by a factory to win races, and your confidence might’ve taken a knock yet you still need to go out and find two or three tenths a lap but you’re on your max, it is really stressful. It’s just lucky we have the team and setup we do to keep stress to a minimum, or I’d go a bit mental. Y ou have to remember though it’s not just one person that’s dependant on results, or under pressure. The whole team is.”
Naturally, that led me to wonder what kind stress that put on the dad-of-two, and his relationship with his wife, who actively upped sticks and travelled the world to be by his side. “Funnily enough I had a conversation with my wife about it all earlier in front of the kids which wasn’t ideal! She kind of threatened that they wouldn’t be able to get to any more races as my little boys are two and four now, and it’s incredibly difficult when I’m constantly travelling and working – but I’ll win her over. It’s hard as well as I’m very family orientated, so the best way for me is to bring them on the road with me which makes it incredibly tough on the wife – she doesn’t get the highs of standing on the podium at the end of a hard weekend and the reward of the sacrifice but she has to deal with a lot of the lows of fighting kids alongside long flights and living out of hotels.
“She does a cracking job, though. It would never be an option to leave these guys at home, as these are the best days of my life and I want to share that with them. I even brought my boys onto the top step at Imola. That one photo and memory I’ll have forever. The team are incredibly welcoming as well and understand that – I had a commitment recently when I had my boys, so my crew chief took them to lunch for me.”
Back to the Future
Even from the outside, the immense stress of being a throttle jockey professionally is blatant, and knowing from his comments about the challenge involved with trekking around the world, it begged the question – would he ever decide to settle down into a domestic championship? Another little nugget rolling round the rumour mill for the future. “Not really! I haven’t thought about the future that far ahead, and I’m not even thinking further than racing this year in all honesty. Riders aren’t lucky enough to decide where you go in all honesty; you just have to
take what opportunities arise at the right times. My manager, C huck, is the director of the Moto America series so he always jokes about going to ride with them, but I don’t look past my immediate future” .
But where exactly would the factory racer be if he had every option on the table? Okay, he may have signed a two-year deal to stay with the K awasaki World Superbike squad, but was it his first choice? “P fffft, to be honest it’s always difficult as there’s so many variables behind the scenes. C huck was obviously in contact with K awasaki in Superbike while he did his best to get an understanding of some opportunities within the MotoG P paddock, but they just weren’t perfect and that’s all there is too it.
“As much as I’d absolutely love to jump into MotoG P , I’d never ever go into the paddock unless it was on the right package, on the right bike, with the right team for the right wage. I have the hot seat in World Superbikes right now with the best team, the best people and the best bike, so what would be the point in chucking that away to finish tenth week-in, week-out?” It’s a pretty valid point, but it made me ask the question if he’d truly want to be in MotoG P no matter what. “I would, but it’s worth remembering that it would be incredibly hard to make the jump personally as well, and I bet it would set the wife off going from 13 races in World Superbike to 2 0 next year in G P !
That alone would be bloody hard work, especially plus testing and any other bits. It’s also vital to have a good bike not just to go quick, but to keep the motivation up through the year, while still being well paid and that opportunity hasn’t come up yet.”
While on the topic of MotoG P , I just had to be an incredibly awkward bastard and bring up the H onda relationship – and if he thought they took the piss, after six seasons riding on below par Superbikes and some impressive stand-in rides, I can’t have been the only person thinking he deserved a ride in the blue ribbon class. So did the big H take the piddle? “Aha, not at all on the World Superbike side of things. The team were really good and I had a lot of good people there, but the level of the bike just wasn’t where it needed to be to go out and win it.
“As far as the MotoG P side of things goes, I felt like that a bit as there was a time where I should’ve been rewarded and it just never happened, so in a sense yeah. It’s funny, because I’ve just proof read the chapter in my upcoming book talking about that, and when it was written I’d had a bottle of wine or two, so I had to alter it slightly when my head was straight. At the time my face just didn’t fit and I was too valuable to H onda in Superbike, but it wasn’t ideal at all. I don’t regret anything though, as it made me the rider I am today, and it prepared me to jump on a bike ready to win a championship, which they’d done with Tom[ S ykes] the previous year and go do it from the off.”
Talking of Tom, there always seems to be so much tension in the K awasaki garage, but was that really the case, or just the efforts of some dramatic camera men? “Erm, yeah – I suppose our relationship is as good as it can be when you have two top riders who want to fight for the title. We’re pretty good away from the track, so if we do any marketing or media events together we can sit down, have coffee and be how we have to be.
“At the track we actually work completely independently, so he’s got his half of the team working on his bike and his path of development and I have mine, and while we share and sometimes overlap data, it’s completely irrelevant as we’ve developed our bikes so differently – you’d have to ride them in a completely different way. H e’s a very stop and go rider, whereas I’m a bit smoother. If you gave Tom my bike, or vice-versa we would not be comfortable at all. There’s things he says and does that I don’t necessarily agree with at times, but I’m sure it’s probably the same the other way round as well. H e’s the toughest teammate I’ve ever had and that’s good for me, but yeah I’m sure you can see how it is.”
With the interview coming to a close, I finished it off by asking him how easy it was to stay at K awasaki, and if he was truly content to stay for another two years. “That’s the conversation we actually had a fair bit with our management team, and it wasn’t an easy position to be in at all, or give a simple answer to. The problem is, if I did go to MotoG P I’d have to get paid a hell of a lot more than I get paid here as it’s a lot more racing. There are positives and negatives, and again it just wasn’t worth the risks of being mediocre. As far as being content, I am. Y es, I would have to step up into MotoG P , but I’m still here with an incredible package, and I hopefully I can bring back another championship or two for the K awasaki factory. There are worse jobs to have! ”
I FELT LIKE THAT A BIT AS THERE WAS A TIME WHERE I SHOULD’VE BEEN REWARDED AND IT JUST NEVER HAPPENED