Here’s Johnny! WSB legend is GOAT
How a never-say-die attitude helped Jonathan Rea make WSB history
Rea makes it a record five in a row after incredible fightback
O ‘It looked like it was never going to happen’
Jonathan Rea made history at Magny-Cours after securing another WSB crown last Sunday. Since joining the Kawasaki Racing Team at the start of 2015, Rea has been almost to untouchable. Before this weekend he was already the most successful rider in WSB history. Now he has achieved something never done before: overtaken Carl Fogarty to become the first rider in the series’ history to claim five world titles. But greatness doesn’t come easily and Rea admits it has been the most difficult year of his career. When MCN predicted after round two in Thailand, following more Alvaro Bautista dominance, that Rea would be the 2019 title winner, we were labelled either brave or stupid. It came at a point in the season when Bautista was sweeping all before him on the all-new Ducati Panigale V4 R. It then got worse for Team Kawasaki and for Rea: The ‘rival in red’ went on to win the first 11 races of the year at which point the idea that Rea might ultimately wrap up his fifth world crown with two rounds spare would have been nothing short of ludicrous. But in the most dramatic turnaround a world motorcycle championship has ever seen, Bautista suffered crashes at Jerez, Misano and Donington. It was at the British round that Rea topped the standings for the first time. Another two Bautista crashes then followed at Laguna Seca where the Spaniard’s shoulder injury prevented him from finishing the final race. By now, the turnaround in fortunes was beginning to put even the dramatic U-turns of 2002 and 2009 in the shade. Those years saw Colin Edwards see off Troy Bayliss and Ben Spies beat Noriyuki Haga. Neither compares with 2019. In what turned out to be a wonderful piece of foresight at pre-season testing in Jerez in Spain Rea told MCN: “Some weekends we could get beaten really badly so we need to know how to react. When people are snapping at your heels it keeps you going. I feel more motivated than ever, excited like a kid. I’m almost more excited this year than any other. When you understand how to win it becomes obsessive. The problem is not understanding how to win but how to lose. It’s no dead cert I am going to be the top guy and I get nervous about it not being a foregone conclusion at this point!”
How right he was. But even if he suspected the Kawasaki might be beaten even he didn’t foresee how comprehensively it would be. There were three low points in particular –Assen was one of them. On what had been his most successful track, Rea desperately attempted to ‘back’ Bautista into the chasing pack – but it didn’t work.
Then came the misery of Race 1 at Jerez, wiping out Alex Lowes at the last corner. As a penalty, Rea was sent to the back of the grid for the 10-lap sprint race in which he fought through to fourth. After that, Bautista led by 61 points. Little did we know it but a huge change was just around the corner. Another Rea low point was the sprint race at Misano: “The advantage he was pulling out of Turn 8 was ridiculous. I got desperate to keep up and I crashed.”
But all that desperation ultimately turned in to elation for the 32-year-old who, after wrapping up his fifth title in Magny Cours, said: “I had to keep believing in the project and believing in myself. It has been my toughest season from both a mechanical and mental point of view. We managed to keep with it and never gave up. It looked like it was never going to happen. All of those second places at the beginning of the year won the championship for me. I never thought it would happen in France.”
And while neither Rea, crew chief Pere Riba or his team even remotely
O ‘The second places at the start of the year won it for me’
gave up, they did have to swallow the pill of acceptance, knowing full well Bautista and Ducati were untouchable earlier in the year. Yet even when Rea started winning again there were still doubts. “Even when I win races again I just can’t see Bautista not finishing second,” Rea told MCN after his Imola double. And after Bautista’s first crash in Jerez was seen as a mere blip, Riba commented: “This round has been a disaster for us. We’ll never stop trying but winning this championship is going to be very, very difficult.”
There’s no doubt other riders in Rea’s position would have been crushed psychologically. Few could have constantly shadowed their rival or fought to podiums after disastrous qualifying sessions such as at Aragon or Assen. And even when Rea crashed at Misano, he had the instinct to roll the bike straight over the top of him, rapidly re-join, lose just three places and still score points. That fifth place was Rea’s worst finish of 2019. If points make prizes, Rea’s season is the proof. Off track, primed for a massive championship challenge, Rea set about improving both his physical and mental capacity by enlisting the services of a new trainer. It worked. “On the last lap I wasn’t sure if it was enough to win the title, even though Alvaro was out of the race,” Rea said after sealing his title. “I thought maybe we would be level on points going to Argentina. Then I came around the last corner and saw the special pit board. At that moment I realised we’d done it. I have no words for it. I just wish my wife Tatia and the kids were here because they are the people who have made this happen. I’m the guy standing here talking to you but it’s my family, all the back-room staff at KRT and everybody who has made it happen. You all know who you are.” On Monday, Rea headed to Ibiza for a stag party ahead of brother Richard’s wedding. It’s a good time to be Jonathan Rea, whose current Kawasaki contract runs to the end of 2020. We may not be around long enough to witness another fivetime WSB champion but it happened on Sunday 29th September 2019: Jonathan Rea’s date with destiny.