Jonathan Rea

Northern Irish motorcycle racer

Jonathan Rea (born 2 February 1987) is a Northern Irish professional motorcycle racer. He competes in the Superbike World Championship and is a six time champion in the series. He is the first to have won the Superbike World Championship six times: in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. He also owns the highest number of SBK race wins (107), fastest laps, podiums and total points (over 5,000 gained until the end of August 2021). Previously he was runner up in the Supersport World Championship for the Ten Kate Honda team in 2008, and runner up in the British Superbike Championship in 2007 for the HM Plant Honda team. He was named Irish Motorcyclist of the Year in 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2016. Rea made two MotoGP starts in 2012, scoring points on both occasions, but has not been a regular rider in the championship. He was nominated for the 2017 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, finishing in second place.

For much of his career he has been backed by Red Bull. Rea was British 60cc motocross runner up in 1997, before moving up through the motocross classes. He was not originally keen to switch to circuit racing as he considered it to be boring, but he was persuaded to by friends Michael and Eugene Laverty, contesting the 2003 British 125cc Championship. His 2004 season was interrupted by a crash at Knockhill. In 2005 Red Bull set up a British Superbike ride for him on a factory spec Honda Fireblade. He showed his potential by snatching a pole position from the established names, and finished 16th in the series despite missing two races, at Snetterton after a heavy testing crash, and at Oulton Park after the death of a junior teammate in the previous event.

He started the 2006 season strongly, lying sixth in the British Superbike Championship after five meetings. At Oulton Park he finished 3rd in race two, before being demoted to fourth as he was deemed to have gained a place from Shane Byrne on the last lap illegally, although he claimed that he crossed the infield grass as he was squeezed out of road. He qualified fifth at Mondello Park before heavy rain forced the cancellation of the races, and claimed that he had been on race tyres, rather than special soft qualifying compounds. He impressed at Mallory Park too, qualifying on the front row and running second until high siding in race one, despite having no race engineer for the weekend. At Knockhill he took pole position, and followed a fourth in race one with his first career podium in race two, passing Leon Haslam for second with two laps to go. He ultimately took fourth in the championship, ahead of the factory Honda of Karl Harris. He took Harris' factory ride for 2007, alongside reigning champion Ryuichi Kiyonari of Japan. After four second places, he finally took his first win in the second race at Mondello Park, after dominating wet practice but struggling in the dry first race. A double victory at Knockhill followed, taking him to within nine points of Kiyonari at the top of the standings – retaining this position after Oulton Park in which each HM Plant Honda rider won once and crashed once. He ultimately finished as the series runner up, 26 points behind Kiyonari and 20 ahead of Leon Haslam. Also in 2007, he raced with Kiyonari and won a three hour endurance race, and the pair was then entered for the Suzuka 8 Hour race on a factory Honda machine. Plans for him to contest the British MotoGP round on a Team Roberts bike were scrapped in favour of extra Suzuka preparation. He attended the 2007 World Superbike round at Brands Hatch, as he began to explore international options.

In September 2007 he signed a three year progressive deal with Ten Kate Honda to ride in the Supersport World Championship for the 2008 season, and the Superbike World Championship for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. He turned down the option of staying in British Superbikes with either HM Plant Honda or move to Rizla Suzuki, and turned down a World Superbike ride with the factory Xerox Ducati team. In his first race at Losail in Qatar, he crashed, badly injuring a finger. At Assen he challenged for a first WSS win, losing by 0.014 seconds to teammate Andrew Pitt. He did win for Ten Kate at the Donington Park British Supersport race, which the team entered as practice for the later WSS race there. His first World Supersport win came at Brno, and he immediately followed this with a second win at Brands Hatch, although the race was stopped early after the fatal accident of Craig Jones with seven laps remaining in the race. A third win followed at Vallelunga, pushing him back up to second in the standings behind Pitt. His chances of winning the title were ended by a wild move from Robbin Harms in the penultimate round at Magny Cours. He did remount to finish tenth in the race.

Rea made his MotoGP debut in 2012, replacing the injured Casey Stoner for the Repsol Honda team. He finished 8th in the San Marino race, held at Misano in Italy, and 7th at Motorland Aragon in Spain, before returning to World Superbike duties.

Rea's family background lies in motorcycle road racing. His father, Johnny, competed at the Isle of Man TT and took his sole victory during the 1989 Junior TT race. His grandfather, John, sponsored Joey Dunlop. Rea married Tatiana Weston, an Australian known as 'Tarsh' (whom he met when she worked promoting UK based superbike team Honda Racing) at a 2012 ceremony in the Lake District. Queen's University Belfast conferred an honorary doctorate on Rea during December 2019. In 2021, Rea obtained his UK motorcycle licence for solo road machines by undertaking a course in his native Northern Ireland having passed with no minors and having the driving instructor pass him a laurel and bottle of champagne for his achievements. Rea was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours, both for services to motorcycle racing.

Series Years Races Poles Podiums Wins 2nd place 3rd place Fastest Laps Titles Points British Superbike Championship 2005–2007 72 7 20 5 11 4 5 0 719 Supersport World Championship 2008 12 0 6 3 1 2 0 0 164 Superbike World Championship 2008– 387 40 249 118 84 47 102 6 5891.5 MotoGP World Championship 2012 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 17 Total 473 47 275 126 96 53 107 6 6791.5

SeasonMotorcycleTeamRaceWinPodiumPoleFLapPtsPlcd 2008 Honda CBR1000RR Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 2 0 0 0 0 14 26th 2009 Honda CBR1000RR HANNspree Ten Kate Honda 28 2 8 0 2 315 5th 2010 Honda CBR1000RR HANNspree Ten Kate Honda 23 4 10 1 5 292 4th 2011 Honda CBR1000RR Castrol Honda 18 2 5 2 0 170 9th 2012 Honda CBR1000RR Honda World Superbike Team 27 2 6 0 0 278.5 5th 2013 Honda CBR1000RR Pata Honda World Superbike 18 1 4 0 1 176 9th 2014 Honda CBR1000RR Pata Honda World Superbike 24 4 9 1 2 334 3rd 2015 Kawasaki Ninja ZX 10R Kawasaki Racing Team 26 14 23 2 11 548 1st 2016 Kawasaki Ninja ZX 10R Kawasaki Racing Team 26 9 23 2 6 498 1st 2017 Kawasaki Ninja ZX 10RR Kawasaki Racing Team 26 16 24 6 14 556 1st 2018 Kawasaki Ninja ZX 10RR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 25 17 22 2 14 545 1st 2019 Kawasaki Ninja ZX 10RR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 37 17 34 7 12 663 1st 2020 Kawasaki Ninja ZX 10RR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 24 11 17 4 11 360 1st 2021 Kawasaki Ninja ZX 10RR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 37 13 30 8 14 551 2nd 2022 Kawasaki Ninja ZX 10RR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 36 6 30 5 8 502 3rd 2023 Kawasaki Ninja ZX 10RR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 36 1 18 3 4 370 3rdTotal 413 119 263 43 104 6172.5

Year Team Co Riders Bike Pos 2012 F. C. C. TSR Kousuke Akiyoshi Tadayuki Okada Honda CBR1000RRW 1st 2018 Team Green Kawasaki Kazuma Watanabe Leon Haslam Kawasaki ZX 10RR 3rd 2019 Kawasaki Racing Team Suzuka 8H Leon Haslam Toprak Razgatlıoğlu Kawasaki ZX 10RR 1st 2022 Kawasaki Racing Team Suzuka 8H Leon Haslam Alex Lowes Kawasaki ZX 10RR 2nd