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Jonathan Rea was initiated into the ranks of WorldSBK legends in 2016, by winning his second back-to-back world championship and the first this millennium. In this two-part Champions series, the Northern Irishman chatted openly about his rise to success and what it’s like at Kawasaki Racing Team working with his teammate Tom Sykes, who was his closest challenger this season.

Recalling his first win in 2015, the 29 year old admits it wasn’t easy to win the title again, with his two incredible seasons taking him on completely contrasting paths to success.

“I’m lucky, I’m with an incredible crew, amazing guys and an amazing factory and we worked super hard this year,” started Rea. “I feel like last season the results were coming automatically, almost easy and we were winning for fun. So this year it seems like we really had to win the championship. It felt like a lot bigger challenge and on days we could win we maximised that potential and on days we couldn’t, we did the best job we could. Luckily for me, the consistency for me has been a key part of the year and to win one race out from the end of the season in Qatar means a lot. Because after 26 races, in 13 rounds all over the world in different conditions, we’re World Champions and that’s been amazing.

“The philosophy when I joined KRT was, okay we have an amazing bike and an amazing package and factory around, but we need to be clever to win the championship. We’ve seen in the past over many seasons, that it’s not always the fastest guy that wins. But I’m really happy with winning races in dominant fashion, winning in last lap battles; it’s been an incredible year to look back on and one I’ll remember for a long time.”

In comparison to his first WorldSBK crown, Rea had to fight for it this season, finding his biggest challenge on the other side of his garage. They say keep your friends close and your enemies closer, the phrase ringing true for the rivals who shared the KRT pit box once again this year. Sykes was Rea’s biggest rival in the points standings and eventually second overall in the final race at Qatar. With the two incredible riders competing on the same bike, the same team and fighting for the same Championship it’s no surprise that Rea and Sykes aren’t the closest of companions. However the Northern Irishman is humble about the healthy competition between himself and his teammate, who also rides under the same flag.

“I’ve always admired Tom, always respected his ability on a bike, right from when we raced together in British Supersport in 2004,” said Rea. “I mean we grew up racing together, but never so competitive. You know, when we first joined the Superbike class, Kawasaki wasn’t competitive. I was on a very competitive team and always finished every year that I was uninjured in the top five in the world championship, whereas Tom had a meteoric rise from outside the top ten to almost winning a championship! That’s incredible and after that something changed. Then working with Tom has been difficult at times, honestly, inside the team because he has a very strong opinion about which way the development of the bike should go. I’ve got different feelings about the bike and together with KHI we have to try and develop this bike to win championships and win races, so it’s very hard. But for Kawasaki, I think it’s a very strong quality to have two different riders of different skills and technique, because they have two lots of data to understand to hopefully build a bike that is more universal, that can be used for a variety of different riding styles.

“We don’t have a super close relationship in the garage, his crew work quite independently to my crew. Of course we can always check on data and understand which areas not to go, what’s not working, but the thing with Tom is at the end of the day, I respect him as a human. He has his own ambitions and when you put two top sportsmen together, head-to-head, it’s impossible to be friends, because this is the guy you want to beat the most. You know, you put so much effort and sacrifice into trying to win a world championship- like he does- so it’s impossible to be friends with this guy, because if it doesn’t happen for you then it’s a huge disappointment. So I respect his space and let him have his say, but for me I just try to focus on myself and my team and that’s enough.”

In the second part of this Champions series, Rea reveals his thoughts on accepting defeat, his family and the man who won more races than he did in 2016; Chaz Davies. Don’t miss the next episode tomorrow, only on WorldSBK.com.