Johnston shows he has Gold standard
Fermanagh’s Lee Johnston claimed the Steve Henshaw Gold Cup at a wet Scarborough yesterday on his Ashcourt Racing R6 Yamaha.
He led the eight-lap race from start to finish to beat Mike Norbury (600cc Honda) by three seconds and join Ryan Farquhar as the only Ulster riders to have won this prestigious trophy.
At Mondello Park, Richie Ryan made it a hat-trick of Dunlop Masters Superbike titles by winning two out of three races during the final round.
And the Irish team of Martin Barr, Stuart Edmonds and Jason Meara qualified for the main Motocross des Nations through the ‘B’ final and finished 18th of the 34 competing nations at Assen in Holland yesterday. WHAT an incredible achievement by Northern Ireland’s Jonathan Rea, now the first rider in history to claim five successive World Superbike titles.
The 32-year-old from Templepatrick unexpectedly clinched the crown yesterday by winning the final race at Magny-Cours in France with the only rider challenging him for the Championship, Spain’s Alvaro Bautista, crashing out on lap two of 21, leaving Rea with an unassailable 129-point lead.
An absolutely stunned and emotional Rea, who was close to tears, said afterwards: “Of the five titles this has been the toughest. People had written me off earlier in the season when I was racking up second places behind Alvaro, but all those seconds won me this Championship.
“It was a real battle with Mickey van der Mark in that race, but once I had established myself at the front I just kept telling myself to hit my markers and don’t make mistakes.
“This has been a massive project with Kawasaki and there are so many people to thank for what we as a family have achieved. Now I’m off to Ibiza tonight for my brother Richard’s stag party.”
This has been a staggering achievement by Rea, who, since he signed for Kawasaki, has won every Championship — 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and now 2019 — with two rounds still remaining this year in Argentina and Qatar.
Rea admitted: “I was nervous today after Saturday’s race when I slipped up and lost the race win on the last lap, my mistake. It was a fun race, but chaotic with a lot going on. Today, Mickey set a good pace and I was able to plot my move to go to the front.
“I didn’t think the Championship was on the cards today and hadn’t planned anything, but the marketing guys were on the ball. I was trying to do the maths in my head and it didn’t sink in until I saw the big No.5 on my pit board.
“It’s still a bit dreamy, but I’m so proud of my team, sponsors, my family and all those people who make this operation work.
“After the first two rounds we were well beaten, and after four rounds we were still getting beaten, but not by as much. Yes, it was an uphill battle — a Championship is not about one race, but a combination of a series of races.
“Right now, I am living in a bubble, focusing on the next race. Since I was a kid in motocross, I wanted to be a world champion, MXGP or MX2 it didn’t matter.
“In 2015 when I won the first title that was it, dream done, and now we have five. When I barrel-rolled the bike at Misano and got back on to finish fifth, I didn’t know at the time how important those five points would be.”
Multi-British Superbike champion Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne said: “I didn’t think he could do it this weekend, but that’s racing.
“When he got to the front he knew if he finished second the Championship would go to Argentina, but the win would seal it today and he went out and did the job. In the early part of the season he looked out of it, but he hung in and reaped the reward.”
Two second places behind Turkey’s first ever WSBK winner Toprak Razgatlioglu on Saturday and yesterday’s Superpole race set up an enthralling final 21-lap encounter.
Van der Mark led from Rea, Bautista and Razgatlioglu on lap one. On lap two, the Turk made a pass on Bautista, lost control and fell off with the unlucky Span