The level of competition continues to increase in each season of the WorldSBK Championship, but each year Jonathan Rea rises to the occasion, with Kawasaki rider making it six titles in-a-row with the 2020 season.
For this year, the battle for the title came down to the final round of the season, with WorldSBK returning to the Estoril circuit in Portugal because of the coronavirus restrictions.
The new track on the calendar didn’t phase Rea though, as he took the championship easily during Saturday’s race.
With Team Green set to update the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR race bike platform for the 2021 model year, Rea should be primed to make next year a lucky seven-in-a-row, which is an impressive mark in any form of motorsport.
“I’m numb after this because I’ve got races tomorrow and my focus goes towards them already,” said an elated Jonathan Rea. “I couldn’t imagine being here six months ago after crashing in Australia and then the lockdown.”
“When I saw the calendar I couldn’t have picked a worse group of tracks for us. Last year was one of the toughest in my career because we came from so far back.”
“We wanted to win but we didn’t understand how to win. We worked hard to do that and this year was different but the crash in Australia was a blessing in disguise and so was the lockdown because I could throw myself into my training.”
“Looking back on the season, it’s been incredible.”
At this point in his Superbike career, Rea has started 302 races – winning 99 of them (that is a 32.7% win rate). He has been on the podium box 185 times, held the fastest lap 78 times, and taken 27 pole position starts.
This tally only seems set to increase further, but until then we wish Rea and the whole Kawasaki Racing Team a sincere congratulations on their achievements thus far.
Source: WorldSBK
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