JONATHAN REA
Now in his 22nd season, the World Superbike sensation’s still hungry for more racing success…
With six back-to-back titles, Jonathan Rea is the most decorated World Superbike champion in the sport’s history, setting all-time highs for race wins (119), points scored (6172.5), podiums (263) and fastest laps (104) during a 16-year world-class career spent wheel-towheel with such greats as Bayliss, Haga, Spies, Davies, as well as Razgatlioglu and Bautista.
Recent times, however, have been hard for the serial winner, an aging ZX-10RR shouldering the blame for a lull in form which, at its lowest, resulted in a 24-race winless streak for the Larne-born legend – but it wasn’t through lack of trying.
Riding the wheels off his Kawasaki to remain competitive, the last few seasons have been edgeof-seat stuff for armchair enthusiasts, as Rea battled Bautista and Razgatlioglu tooth and nail. It begs the question, at 36 and with so much success already behind him, just how does he keep that all-ornothing will to win?
“I don’t know whether it’s healthy or unhealthy, but winning is an obsession,” Rea admits to MCN. “Every day I just want to be better, so I’ll do whatever it takes.
“When the leathers go on and the visor comes down, I become a different character. I can emotionally disconnect – I don’t feel fear. I don’t think about anything other than winning.”
It’s this unrelenting compulsion that’s prompted his move away from the Kawasaki Racing Team after nine years, six titles and over 100 race wins. Signing to the factory Yamaha squad for 2024 came as a surprise to those who thought he might call it quits instead.
“Retirement wasn’t an option,” he says. “So the opportunity with Yamaha was the best thing at the time to light the fire.”
The move to Yamaha this season brings Rea full circle, as his very first encounter with two wheels involved the Iwata manufacturer’s smallest machine. “It was riding a PW50 around with my best mate on his dad’s farm,” recalls Rea. “We both had these little bikes – mine had a red seat, his had a purple one. We were only four or five, but we’d think we were racers, and my dad’s friend would video us.”
Little more than a year later, Rea was racing motocross and the wins came thick and fast, taking the ACU British 60cc title in 1997 and with it ambitions to one day turn pro. Then out of the blue, Rea’s father Johnny, himself a TT winner and highly supportive of Jonathan’s dream, gave his son an ultimatum.
“He told me that if I wanted to keep racing I had to do it myself and find support,” says Rea. “It’s a tough sport financially, and my parents were just exhausted with spending time and money. I have two other brothers and a sister, so it was like the world was revolving around my racing, my hobby.”
Although opportunities presented themselves within the MX world, in 2003 aged 15, Rea spotted an advert looking for road racing’s stars of the future to join the Red Bull Rookies British 125GP team. Despite having next to no road racing experience, Jonathan saw off competition from hundreds of other talented young riders to earn his place in the energy
‘Healthy or not, winning is an obsession’
drink-sponsored squad in a deal reputedly worth over £75,000. It was all the springboard he needed.
“Those early seasons were a whirlwind,” remembers Jonathan. “Everything happened so fast; I was on a superbike after a couple of seasons, then took my first BSB win in 2007, and was in the world championship in 2008.”
Rea’s rapid rise was a tribute to his natural talent and also his enthusiasm to learn. Although he’s acutely aware of the role others around him played.
“I was so lucky because I was surrounded by professional people from day one in the Red Bull Rookies, and then also in the Honda team, which was formed from ex-Castrol Honda WSBK staff. When you’re 17 and you’re working with these guys you absorb all this information, and what I learned in a couple of seasons it’d take kids a lifetime to learn by themselves.
I was very fortunate.”
Now embarking on his 22nd season as a professional, Rea’s taking all his knowledge and that insatiable hunger for victory with him to Yamaha.
“If we can start off in a good way and win some races, I’m sure we can fight for the championship,” he says. “We’ve just got to see, and try not to get ahead of ourselves.”