THE OXLEY INTERVIEW: JONATHAN REA
The dominant force in World Superbike racing, and what drives him.
It’s not easy to understand what goes on inside the brain of a successful motorcycle racer, but this will help… Firstly, imagine you are a top superbike racer and you’re leading the world championship by a nice margin with a smattering of races to go. All you need to wrap up the title are a few decent finishes – no need to try killing yourself for another win.
Now imagine you’re on track, in one of the few remaining races, and there’s a young hotshot ahead of you, riding out of his skin. He appears to be willing to risk full-body sacrifice to score his first WSB victory. What’s your response? Do you (a) go after him, risking a crash that will lose you a load of points and possibly leave you injured? Or (b) do you tell yourself discretion is the better part of valour and that 20 points is better than gambling 25 points against zero points?
Any normal mortal would, I think, take option two. Which is why normal mortals don’t win six World Superbike championships.
‘Maybe my mind works differently, but when I have a good points gap it’s easier to take many more risks, because it doesn’t matter if I win the championship by one point or 101,’ says Jonathan Rea. ‘When you have a margin you can always afford to lose them points and bet on yourself, “Hey, I’m going to win the next race, don’t worry”.’
The race in question was the last at September’s Aragon WSB round, where Rea was chasing Ducati rider Michael Rinaldi, who will be Scott Redding’s factory Ducati team-mate in 2021.
Rea’s pursuit of the Italian youngster had him in all kinds of trouble a couple of times, most memorably braking into Turn One, where he locked his ZX-10R’S front tyre at the same moment the airborne rear tyre returned to the asphalt. The bike went into convulsions and Rea only just held on, but even that didn’t convince him 20 points were better than none.
‘I made a conscious decision I could win the race, even after those moments. I was playing close to the limit many times, but once you believe, you have to go all-in and try and make it happen, regardless of the championship.’
That’s how your brain needs to work if you want to make it in motorcycle racing.
Here’s another tale that may further improve your understanding of a racer’s need to focus and sacrifice everything in pursuit of victory. ‘This happened on the grid at Donington a couple of years ago,’ Rea recalls. ‘I was sat there absolutely bursting for a pee, so I started going in my leathers, so much so that it dripped down and there was a small puddle under my bike. The three-minute board was shown, when you have to unplug your tyre warmers, and my chief mechanic Uri [Pallarès] spotted the puddle. He gently tapped my other chassis mechanic: what’s that? He was thinking it’s water or oil, or something else from the bike.’ Pallarès tested the fluid, by dipping a finger and tasting it.
‘I won the race and then in parc fermé Uri asked me, “you peed on the grid, didn’t you?” and slapped me! I said, “yeah, sorry mate”.’
In October Rea wrapped up his sixth consecutive World Superbike title and took his 99th WSB race win. He is 33-years-old, married to Tatia, with two kids, and has nothing left to prove. You’d think retirement might be on his mind, but not at all.
‘It’s the winning feeling that keeps me going – it’s like a drug,’ he says. ‘Once you get that feeling you don’t want to accept getting beaten, so the motivation comes from the fear of losing, rather than the feeling you get when you win.
‘I feel like I’m at the peak in the way I’m riding. Plus I’m still learning new things. I feel very adaptable to changing my riding style as the bike develops and I’m still as motivated as ever to get up in the morning and train and sacrifice a lot. That’s never dwindled. I wouldn’t say the best is yet to come, but I still think I have a lot to give.
‘The day will come when I get up in the morning and I don’t want to go training, or I see my flight details come up and I’m like, “Fuck, do I really have to go there?” But right now I can’t see it.
‘Five years ago I joked that maybe I’ll win another world title and be happy to walk away, but the other things that keep me going are the atmosphere inside my team and the life I have at home. These things keep me really happy and motivated. In racing it’s really hard to find that little bubble where you put your balls on the line every weekend and it’s tough and there’s super-fierce competitors but you can really enjoy it, and then you can go home and have a good family life as well. It’s an incredible place to be.’
Rea has made a lot of history in World Superbikes but many people still want to know why he hasn’t had a proper crack at Motogp? Basically, it’s because he couldn’t find the bike he wanted, and WSB makes a lot more sense for a family man.
‘We race 13 rounds a year, while Motogp race 20 [in normal seasons]. Usually my wife and kids come to 70 percent of the races and we don’t have a nanny travel to parent our kids for us. I’m super-proud of that. ‘I don’t think we could do that if I was away 20 weeks racing, another few weeks testing and then PR commitments. I get home from races and take the kids to school on Monday, whereas if I’d had the same level of success in Motogp that I’ve had in WSB I’d be a superstar and my life balance would be completely compromised.’
A few years back I interviewed 1980s legend Eddie Lawson. The four-times 500cc world champion told me he’d wanted to retire several years before he actually did, because he couldn’t bear getting off his Californian sofa and flying to Europe to race. His management – obviously keen to keep him racing and earning them a cut of his earnings – worked out that what he hated most was the two-hour traffic jam to Los Angeles airport, then another hour of queuing to get on the plane. So they arranged to have a helicopter pick him up from
‘If I’d had the same success in Motogp that I’ve had in WSB I’d be a superstar and my life balance would be completely compromised’
his home and drop him at the airport’s VIP entrance. That way Lawson kept racing for another two seasons, earning a few million more dollars in the process.
Money, of course, is another motivation for Rea, even though he’s not a bling-bling kind of a guy. ‘When I’m racing I try to forget I get a good salary from Kawasaki, so I just think about the bonus money and when I see the bonus I know I’ve had a good weekend.
‘Tarsh and I got our dream home a few years ago when we moved back to Northern Ireland, but I don’t have a Lamborghini or Ferrari parked outside. I do like watches though, so every championship I buy myself a luxury watch. That’s my little thing.’
Helicopters and private jets – which are becoming more and more of a thing over there in Motogp – aren’t part of the Rea lifestyle approach. ‘I haven’t used a private jet since a couple of years ago, when we chartered one to get home from Magny-cours for a homecoming event in Belfast. It was an experience for me and the family but I don’t need to do it every time.
‘I price them up now and again but it’s ridiculous – you splurge ten grand to get home from a race five hours earlier and then plaster it all over social media. That isn’t up my street.
‘When I was 16 I dropped out of school, so my parents made me go to work. I got a job at an engineering factory, welding and painting metal, building sheds, on £3.20 an hour, the minimum wage. So I know how hard a pound is to make.’
Rea didn’t take the path well trodden by many a Northern Irishman going motorcycle racing, the real roadracing path – Isle of Man TT, North West 200 and more.
‘Where I grew up roadracing is king. Nine sponsors out of ten will buy you a 600 to race in the North West and the TT, whereas maybe one guy will buy you a 600 to race in the British championship. In Ireland making it in a world championship is just a pipe dream, so guys such as me and Eugene Laverty have been very lucky when it comes to our opportunities.’
Rea’s father Johnny won the 250cc Junior TT in 1989 but never wanted his son to follow in his wheel tracks on the Island.
‘He told me if I ever did the TT he’d kick me out of the house, so I was
‘Alvaro came in like a steam train – he was like this animal riding this missile and he showed no weakness’
brought up with the understanding that it’s dangerous, but at the same time he told me I’d never get the same feeling riding around any other circuit that I’d get at the TT.’
Rea’s career got serious in 2005, when he was 17-years-old. He spent three years in BSB, a year in World Supersport and then six in World Superbike, with Honda. During those six WSB seasons he won 15 races on Fireblades. In 2015 he switched to Kawasaki (which, unlike Honda, ran a full-factory WSB effort) and won 14 races in just one year to take his first WSB title.
That was a huge relief after so many years banging his head against a wall on uncompetitive machinery. ‘Before I won the title I was angry because I’d not had the success I wanted, but once we started winning I got more laid back because the boxes had been ticked. Now I don’t put as much pressure on myself because I’ve achieved everything I wanted to. I used to feel pressure to keep winning but now, because of my attitude, it’s easier to have fun.’
No real need to ask which was Rea’s toughest title win. In 2019 Ducati unleashed their Panigale V4, which Motogp refugee Alvaro Bautista used to win the first ten races of the season. ‘Alvaro came in like a steam train at the beginning – he was like this animal riding this missile and he showed no weakness. So we just kept working the same way, like robots, then we saw the weaknesses they had in stopping and changing direction. At some races I just had to make sure I passed him and break his rhythm, like Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner at Laguna Seca. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.’
Last season Redding replaced Bautista at Ducati, threatening to dethrone Rea. However, the former Motogp rider won only five races to Rea’s 11.
‘The Ducati has a lot more top speed than us, but we can still stop much better and change direction better, plus we’re quite strong on mechanical traction. If I had a magic wand I’d want at least another ten horsepower. But the Kawasaki is a great package overall.’ Redding and Ducati will either have to up their game or wait a while if they want Rea’s crown, because he has already signed with Kawasaki for the next two seasons.
‘One hundred percent I’ll be riding in 2021 and 2022 and then we’ll see. Maybe then it will be time for a new challenge in life or maybe I’ll keep going.’
Rea’s relentless drive for success has made him the Rossi, Mick Doohan or Giacomo Agostini of World Superbikes. It’s also made him a hero in Northern Ireland. On the end of a terrace of houses somewhere in Belfast there’s a beautiful mural of the man and his ZX-10R. Each year someone neatly adds his latest world title to the mural: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and now 2020. If he keeps going much longer they’re going to need a bigger house.