The legendary #65 has announced he will draw the curtains on his illustrious 17-season MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship career. The Northern Irishman racked up World Championships, race wins, and poles aplenty over his dominant reign over the rest of the field, leading all-time legends of the Championship with his tally in all three of the aforementioned categories. Perhaps most impressively, legendary names such as Fred Merkel, Doug Polen, and ‘King’ Carl Fogarty were the only riders who at the time had accomplished the feat of winning more than one title in a row. Yet, the #65’s imperious run from 2015 to 2020 saw him earn six consecutive World Championships, not only stamping his name atop the list of most Championships won by a single rider but shattering the prior record of most World Championships won consecutively.

His most recent win came back in 2023 in his last season with Kawasaki. A wet day in Czechia saw him take advantage of eventual 2023 Champions Alvaro Bautista's (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) crash out of the contest. Rea flexed his wet conditions skill as he managed to stay with the riders at the front who were on wet tyres on the damp track at the race’s start. As the track dried, Rea and his intermediate tyres surged ahead, while other riders pulled into the pits to change away from their wet tyres. Rea claimed P1 while his Titanic Trio rival Toprak Razgatlioglu, on his Yamaha R1, made up time behind him. Rea was able to hold off the surging #54, who, while he was making up time on the #65, his pace came as too little, too late; finishing in P2 behind the Ulsterman with a gap of 4.007s. With his win, Rea broke his race win drought, which had dragged on for 23 races, or 252 days without topping the podium.

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