World Superbike champion, serial ‘podiumee’ (23 from 26) and race winner (14 from 26), Kawasaki debut star and new father to a second child: 2015 was an epic year for recently-turned 29 year old Jonathan Rea who blended so emphatically with the ZX-10R. Before the new World SBK series gets underway in Australia on February 26-27 we caught up with the Monster Energy champ, nice guy and bike-mad athlete for some perspective on a term that will go down in the record books as one of the greatest…
On the best kind of start…
To seal the deal at Phillip Island on my first race with the ZX-10R was beyond all my expectations. It is a moment I still look back on as the highlight of the year.
On a truly memorable performance…
The weekend that stands out the most though I think is Thailand because it was a completely new circuit. My guys understood the bike and we completely dominated the weekend with two of the strongest races I had in 2015.
On taking a slightly different ride around his local roads…
This year I got to achieve a dream of mine by riding a motorcycle around the Isle of Man TT course. My father raced there when he was a lot younger and won the Junior TT. When Monster and Kawasaki created the opportunity to ride there I was really loving it. We were behind a track marshal that knew his way around and it was a real experience for me because I hadn’t ridden at those speeds around those types of circuit before. It highlighted that this kind of racing was not for me. I like circuits where I can ride at 110% of the limit and there I was a little bit scared to be honest! I like and respect the guys that race there and at an event that I never fail to go to because of the atmosphere and to soak up the fans and the passion for road racing.
On hitting the dirt with a special hero…
I grew up in schoolboy motocross and my dream back then was to go to the U.S. and race Supercross. When I was racing 65 or 80cc bikes I always looked up to Jeremy McGrath and he was the guy back then that was so dominant. I got the chance to go and ride with him after the race at Laguna. We went to southern California and he is such a cool guy and it was a nice experience because he is now watching Superbike and seeing what I am doing. He was such an inspiration to me when I was young and for sure if I had not gone the road racing route then I would still be racing motocross somewhere in the world.
On missing out on ‘match point’ by mere centimetres in Malaysia…
Sepang was a really strange race because we went into the weekend knowing we could mathematically win the championship but realistically it was a long shot. We were faced with the situation going into the last corner of race two that if I came out in the lead then I was going to win the championship. It was so strange because I’d stuck a good pass [on Chaz Davies] on the back straight and braked to the maximum to lead coming out but Chaz swooped by.
On creating history and capping a year with two rounds still remaining at Jerez in Spain…
I remember as clear as day passing the finish line and seeing all my crew on the pitwall with the World Champion pitboard and it was that moment where you’d seen all your heroes beforehand getting that signal. Finally it was there for me and the season had so many good memories, so many double wins, pole positions and fastest laps that it has been an incredible journey.
Credit Monster