Rea is the new ‘Mr. Superpole’ with 2019 Tissot Superpole Award
The awards keep coming for the Ulsterman, as his nine consecutive front rows this season give him more accolades to be proud of!
After back-to-back seasons of 17 wins, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) stormed to the 2019 Tissot Superpole Award, scooping the award for a second time in three seasons. A stunning year has seen Jonathan Rea romp to seven pole positions from the Tissot Superpole Sessions, whilst accumulating a further six Tissot Superpole Race victories, seeing him edge 40 points clear of early season phenomenon and rookie, Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati).
Rea started the season in fine fashion with a pole position in Australia and a second place on the grid in Thailand, before two third-row Superpole sessions at MotorLand Aragon and the TT Circuit Assen saw him with work to do. Since then however, Rea has hit metronomic consistency and took nine front rows on the bounce, currently his third-best streak. Another eight will see him equal Scott Russell’s record streak of 17, from Brands Hatch in 1993 to Albacete in 1994, also, all for Kawasaki. With Bautista in second overall, Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK) was third, ahead of Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team), making it four manufacturers inside the top five.
In World Supersport, Federico Caricasulo (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team) may have missed out on the Championship but he takes home the Tissot Superpole Award. The Italian beat his teammate, Randy Krummenacher, by 14 points by the end of the season, whilst Jules Cluzel (GMT94 YAMAHA), Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Raffaele De Rosa (MV AGISTA Reparto Corse) completed the top five. ESS Champion Kyle Smith (Team Pedercini Racing) was 11th overall.
Finally, in WorldSSP300, it was a much closer affair as in the final round of the season, 2019 WorldSSP300 Champion Manuel Gonzalez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) pipped Indonesian sensation Galang Hendra Pratama (Semakin Di Depan Biblion Motoxracing) by just 1 point to take the award. Third place went to 2018 WorldSSP300 Champion Ana Carrasco (Kawasaki Provec WorldSSP300), with Andy Verdoïa (BCD Yamaha MS Racing) in fourth and Victor Steeman (Freudenberg KTM Junior Team) in fifth.
Enjoy all of the 2019 action OnDemand and fuel your passion for the forthcoming 2020 WorldSBK season with the WorldSBK VideoPass!
