FORM GUIDE: Bulega closes in on Razgatlioglu’s winning streak with a historic run to start 2026 on the cards
There are records on the table at Assen while the historic venue has provided plenty of milestones in the past
The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship rolls around to the TT Circuit Assen for Round 3 of the 2026 campaign, and there are plenty of big numbers to look at ahead of the racing action beginning. There’s a possibility of a record winning run being equalled and more to come from the Pirelli Dutch Round, so check out the big numbers and milestones below.
71 – Assen is in second place for races hosted: 71, 5 short of the WorldSBK record of 76 held by Phillip Island.
56 – 56 points advantage after six races for Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) in the Championship: it’s the second-biggest in history after 1995, when Carl Fogarty led Mauro Lucchiari 140 to 72 (+68). Looking ahead, the biggest advantage after 9 races was recorded in 2003, when Neil Hodgson had an advantage of 110 points over Ruben Xaus.
35 – The Dutch track is a home for British wins: no fewer than 35 out of 71. The next countries for wins at Assen are Australia and Spain on 9.
34-30 – Last year, Ducati upped their tally of Assen wins to 34, which is more than the sum of their nearest rivals, Honda and Kawasaki with 15 each.
33-26 – At the age of Bulega at Assen (26 years 6 months 2 days on Saturday), only one rider has won more than him (26 wins) in WorldSBK history: Toprak Razgatlioglu (33 wins).
33 – The last 33 races were won only by the first two grid spots: this is an unprecedented streak in history. The previous record was 21, from Jarama Race 1 to Mugello Race 1, 1991.
27-26 –Bulega is just one win short of 11th in the all-time list, held by Doug Polen (27 wins).
25/26 – Jonathan Rea (Honda HRC) has 25 podiums at Assen, the second-best value for any given track behind his 26 at MotorLand Aragon.
24 – No fewer than 24 different riders have won a WorldSBK race at Assen. The last 4 were added in the last two weekends: Nicholas Spinelli, winner on debut, and Razgatlioglu, first winner for BMW here in 2024; Bulega and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) last year.
19/22 – Bulega is currently on a streak of 19 consecutive podiums. One more will mean he goes level with Razgatlioglu’s streak set between Mandalika Race 1 in 2023 and the Superpole Race at Most in 2023 (20 podiums). Two more will see the #11 go level with Rea’s second-longest rostrum run at 21 races, between Lusail Race 2, 2014 and Sepang Race 2, 2015, while a third will see him surpass Rea for the third-longest streak of all time. The all-time record is 25, set by Colin Edwards and Razgatlioglu, followed by Rea on 24.
17 – 17 wins for Rea at Assen: the absolute record for a rider on any given track.
16 – Yamaha last year ended a 16-year winning drought at Assen, thanks to Locatelli. Their previous one dated back to 2009 (Ben Spies).
13 – A hat-trick for Bulega means he will equal the all-time winning streak of 13 victories, set by Razgatlioglu in both 2024 and 2025.
8-8 – Both Jonathan Rea and Carl Fogarty were able to win 8 consecutive races at Assen. Fogarty set the record from 1993 to 1996, Rea from 2014 Race 2 to 2018 Race 1.
6-9 – With a perfect score of 6 wins out of the first 6 races of the season, Bulega enters the Assen weekend with a chance to extend this streak to 9, something managed so far only by Neil Hodgson in 2003 and by Alvaro Bautista in 2019 (won the first 11).
6x6 – Since the last win from pole here (Alvaro Bautista, Race 2, 2023), the following 6 races were won by 6 different grid spots: 11th, 7th, 9th, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.
5 –Rea in 2024 set the record for Assen poles: 5. Rea lost his 2017 pole due to a penalty and got the 2023 one after Bautista was penalised.
4 – Only 4 riders managed to record their maiden career win at Assen: Chris Walker (Race 1, 2006), Sylvain Guintoli (Race 1, 2012), Nicholas Spinelli (Race 1, 2024, debut race for him); Locatelli (Race 2, 2025).
3-4 – Miguel Oliveira (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) is on a streak of 3 podiums started from his maiden one. The last rider with a longer streak after his maiden one was Scott Redding, who posted his first 6 podiums in succession in 2020 in the Phillip Island and Jerez weekends. The year before, Alvaro Bautista debuted in the series with a streak of 15 podiums (the first 11 were wins).
3x3 – The streak of 3 identical podiums at Portimao is not unprecedented, as it was recorded no less than 7 times in history, the last one last year in Magny-Cours (Razgatlioglu, Bulega, Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team)) but a fourth one would be a record-breaker.
3 –Bulega is running his best streak of pole positions, 3 (since Jerez last year).
3x3 – The last 3 races here have been won by three different riders on three different bikes: Bulega (Ducati), Razgatlioglu (BMW), Locatelli (Yamaha).
1.793 – In the last 10 races run, no one was able to close within 1.793 seconds from Bulega: that was the margin for victory in Jerez Race 2 last year. This year the minimum advantage at the finish for Bulega was 1.882s in the Superpole Race of the Portuguese Round.
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