The Acerbis Czech Round was the strongest round of the 2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship for Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) as he scored more points than anyone else, while also ending his 252-day win drought. He ended the weekend with three podiums for the first time this season as he headed into the summer break with momentum in his corner, as the six-time Champion moving into third place in the Championship standings at the Autodrom Most.

Rea was fifth in the Tissot Superpole session, the first time he hadn’t been on pole at Most but was able to convert this into victory in Race 1 after an intermediate tyre gamble paid off. It ended his 23-race, 252-day win drought in style after a strong opening part of the race where his rivals were quicker on Pirelli’s rain tyre. His last win came in Race 1 at Phillip Island last year, also a rain-affected race, and his win at the Czech venue meant he has now won in each of his 15 seasons.

In the first five laps, Rea initially lost ground to Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing), who had stormed away at the front. On Lap 1, Bassani was around six seconds quicker than Rea before going four seconds faster the next lap. The deficit between their lap times was reducing further with the #47 three seconds quicker on Lap 3, and less than a second faster on Lap 4. On Lap 5, the final lap before Bassani pitted, the #65 was four seconds quicker than his rival and made up more time before the Ducati star opted to pit. With rain tyre runners coming into the pits, Rea moved into the lead and held on for a first win in more than 250 days.

On Sunday, Rea added two more podiums to his tally. In the Tissot Superpole Race, he finished second behind Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) and ahead of Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) after the reigning Champion surged from 14^th to the podium. In Race 2, Rea was running in second after the #54’s late-race crash but soon found himself in a battle for the podium as Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) and Bassani, recovering from an early mistake, closed the gap. A tenth separated the trio at the line with Petrucci denying Rea on the run to the flag. Rea scored 50 points out of a maximum 62, more than anyone else on the grid.

Summing up his weekend, Rea commented: “My pace felt okay, and I thought I could be there; especially in the Superpole Race because I didn’t realise I had that pace. In the long race, I went for different tyres to pretty much the whole grid. Me and my team, when I tried them on Friday, felt they had a little bit more grip. At the end of the race, the bike was moving so much, and entry traction was gone. It was all I could to do keep Danilo behind. I could see on the pit board he was coming and then he parked it at Turn 1, but I went the long way around and parked it at Turn 2! I tried to do everything perfectly. I defended into the penultimate corner but in the last corner I could feel him, but not see him with my peripheral vision. He leant on me a little bit. I thought, ‘if I ride into him, there’s as much chance of me going down as well as him’ so I gave him a little bit of space. I can’t complain, I would’ve snapped your hand off if you told me I’d have these results at a track I don’t have much affection with. We came away with a big haul of points and a good feeling with the bike.”

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