Having conquered the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship six times over the course of his 18-year career, Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha) has made a powerful argument for himself as the greatest WorldSBK rider of all time. The Ulsterman has provided legendary moments season after season and set unfathomable records across the span of his career in the Championship.

PORTIMAO 2008: Rea’s WorldSBK Debut

After three strong seasons in British Superbikes, including a second place in that championship in the preceding 2007 season, the #65 earned a spot on the WorldSSP grid with Hannspree Ten Kate Honda. By the final round of the season, after a strong rookie showing in the season up to that point, Rea was given a spot on the WorldSBK grid in the final round of the season at Portugal’s Autodromo Internacional do Portimao to replace the injured Kenan Sofuoglu. Rea announced himself to the WorldSBK community with his Saturday afternoon front row performance in the Tissot Superpole session, taking P3. In Race 1, Rea did well to protect his position and went on to finish P4 for his best race placement of the weekend.

KYALAMI RACE 2 2009: First WorldSBK Podium

2009 was the first season as a full-time member of the WorldSBK grid, and after strong performances in the two preceding rounds at Assen and Monza, earning a pair of fifth place finishes and a fourth-place result at Monza’s Race 2, it was clear Rea was in the hunt for the rostrum places. Race 1 saw him similarly in the fight, beaten out by Ben Spies for P3 to relegate him to fourth. Race 2, however, Rea would not be denied. After starting back in P5, Rea fought well at the front to outpace Leon Haslam and Max Biaggi to secure P3 behind Michel Fabrizio and Noriyuki Haga. His podium effort in Race 2 was his first on WorldSBK, and the first of what would to date grow to a tally of 264.

Misano RACE 2 2009: First WorldSBK Race win

After his maiden podium at Kyalami and earning a second P3 at Salt Lake City’s Miller Motorsports Park in the US, the subsequent round at Italy’s Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” would see a further step forward by the ascendant Ulsterman. Rea placed atop the first two of the three Tissot Superpole sessions- the Championship in that era used a differently structured race weekend- and finished P2 in the third and final session. After a P7 finish in Race 1, Rea began his Race 2 from second on the grid, and tailed Haga for the first three laps of the Race. On Lap 4, the #65 made his move, placing himself at the front of the pack for only the second time in his WorldSBK career up to that point. He led the race from Lap four until Lap 16 out of 24, when Fabrizio swung past him and threatened him with the possibility of delaying Rea from earning his maiden WorldSBK win. It looked as though the Italian would emerge victorious in his home round, leading the race into the penultimate lap, when Rea struck and took back P1 in the final lap to claim his first WorldSBK race win, holding Fabrizio off by a mere 0.063s.

Australia Race 1 2015: First Race win with Kawasaki

After six years with Honda from his first full season in 2009 through 2014, Rea made a big-ticket move from Honda to Kawasaki, a crucial turning point in the Northern Irishman’s career, who, to this point, had yet to win a World Championship. The #65 started from pole, leading the majority of laps, however, under constant pressure from fellow United Kingdom riders Chaz Davies and Leon Haslam. Both riders pushed Rea to the limit, only just managing to cross the line 0.039s ahead of Haslam in P2. The performance at the season’s opening race was Rea’s first win of his WorldSBK career, and would set the tone not only for the season to come, but for the new era that few at the time realised was beginning.

Jerez Race 1 2015: First WorldSBK Championship

At the outset of the 11^th round of 2015’s 13 rounds, Rea stood on the precipice of glory. He had ridden tremendously in his first season with Kawasaki, winning 12 of the 20 races up to that point in the season. His consistently fast pace had seen him not miss the podium once in the entire season up to that point, and he only needed to finish P4 to clinch his first WorldSBK title. Rea accomplished just that as he was outpaced by only teammate Tom Sykes, who earned his 60^th WorldSBK podium, rival Chaz Davies, and exciting rookie prospect Michael van der Mark. His P4 clinched the Championship, both his and his Kawasaki manufacturer’s first world title.

Magny-Cours Race 1 2018: Ties Carl Fogarty in world title tally, overtakes Foggy for most podiums

Three years later, and what started as a feel-good story of a first-time Champion winning a first title with a manufacturer that had never won a World Championship had become a towering hegemon over the WorldSBK paddock. In 2018, Rea had won the last three Championships consecutively, a feat never accomplished in the history of WorldSBK, and was showing no signs of slowing. Starting from P2 in Race 1, the Ballymena native put on a show, taking P1 from his teammate Sykes in the second lap and putting the hammer down from there. Finishing with more than a three-second margin over his fellow Kawasaki rider, Rea’s race win not only saw him draw even with Carl Fogarty in world titles, but it coincidentally saw him draw even with ‘Foggy’ on race wins, matching his tally of 130. The subsequent Race 2 saw Rea break it, placing him alone at the top of the all-time WorldSBK leaderboards in Race wins.

Magny-Cours Race 2 2019: Surpasses Fogarty with five World Championships

The subsequent season after making it four World Championships in a row, the #65 kept his Championship pace up in 2019; however, he faced a strong new rival. Alvaro Bautista made his debut with the factory Ducati Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team, and the Spaniard instantly became a stumbling block for the four-time consecutive World Champion. Bautista kept Rea off the top of the podium for the first four rounds in their entirety. It was not until Round five at Imola that Rea topped the podium. However, as the season continued, Bautista’s form started to sputter, plagued by DNFs and poor placements in the second half of the season. It was then at Magny-Cours, with two rounds still to play that Rea had his chance to clinch his fifth World Championship. Luck was on his side, it would seem that day, as the Northern Irishman battled with Michael van der Mark, at the time riding atop a Yamaha. The pair traded places for P1; however, on Turn 13 of Lap 2, Toprak Razgatlioglu lost the rear of his Kawasaki bike, and unfortunately for all the grid apart from the Northern Irishman, Razgatlioglu’s bike careened into Bautista, knocking both out of contention. At the time in second place in the Riders’ Championship, Bautista’s DNF meant that if Rea won, he would clinch the Championship on points. That was soon reflected on the rider's pit board, and as he pulled away from the Dutch star, he crossed the line first, becoming the first ever rider to win five WorldSBK Championships, placing him solely at the front of the all-time title tally ahead of Carl Fogarty with four. Rea wasn’t done there either; he would return in 2020 to take his nearly unfathomable sixth world title for the Ballymena rider.

Aragon Race 1 2021: Rea’s 100th win

Entering his 14^th season on the WorldSBK grid, Jonathan Rea had now staked his sole claim to the rider with the most World Championships, most race wins, and most podiums; however, Rea was not yet ready to stop setting milestones. The first race of the 2021 season would see the ‘Professor of Portimao’ break a further record. With the first chequered flag of the 2021 season, Rea led fellow Kawasaki rider Alex Lowes and eventual 2021 Riders’ Champion with Yamaha, Toprak Razgatlioglu across the line with nearly a four second cushion to become the first ever rider to accumulate 100 wins in any single class of the FIM road racing World Championships.

Most Race 1 2023: Final win in green

By 2023, Rea found himself among a new generation of rivals. Following his six-year domination of the sport, riders like Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista had risen to give him a run for his money. The three forming the vaunted ‘Titanic Trio’. Razgatlioglu won his first in 2021, and 2022 and 2023 would see Alvaro Bautista dominate two years of his own. It was during these two seasons that Rea would suffer the longest race win drought of his career since his first race win back in 2009. After 252 days, comprising 23 races, at Most Race 1, Rea got the monkey off of his back. A tyre strategy masterclass saw him take to the wet track with intermediate tyres, hanging with the riders at the front like Axel Bassani, who were on rain tyres until the drying conditions forced them into the pits to change, allowing Rea to leap ahead. Razgatlioglu began to gain on him lap after lap, however, it was too little too late as the Northern Irishman went on to what would prove to be his final race win with Kawasaki.

Assen and Donington 2024: First pole and podium with Yamaha

The pre-2024 offseason saw Rea and Kawasaki split ways, the rider and manufacturer who had accomplished unprecedented feats together mutually deciding to take on new challenges separately. Three rounds into 2024, newly in Yamaha blue, Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha) landed his 44^th pole position in the wet at the ‘Cathedral of Speed’, outpacing dynamic rookie Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) with his new BMW team. Two rounds later, Rea found podium pace at his home round at Donington. The Superpole Race saw him outpacing countrymen Scott Redding and Alex Lowes. To date, these results have been the only poles or podiums he has earned with Yamaha, a feat he will strive to change in the final four rounds of his final season.

AND EVEN MORE TO WATCH: Check out the archive with many more of Rea’s career highlights with the WorldSBK VideoPass!

As the list of records Rea has broken is nearly longer than the list of records he didn’t, there are a litany of moments, wins, and records not contained in this list. Across his 18 seasons in the Championship, even more of his unmentioned best moments can be found as a part of the expansive archive section of the WorldSBK VideoPass! Subscribe today and enjoy a 50% discount, allowing access to live broadcasts of race events as well as full uploads of past rounds and exclusive inside-the-paddock footage! Subscribe today!