Superbike: Jonathan Rea, a sad ending for an all-time great

Jonathan Rea ends a stellar Superbike career at Jerez: six World titles and 119 wins, a record with no equal. But this finale should have been different.

At 38, having turned in last February, the Northern Irish talent will close the journey begun back in the distant 2008 on this sunny Andalusian Sunday. JR65 entered Superbike in a different era, when the production-derived championship was presented as a brilliant alternative to MotoGP. Despite racing for many seasons with Honda, the least competitive production-derived bike of that time (and of this one too, unfortunately...), he immediately became one of the greats. Not so much for the victories, but for the charisma, riding style, aggression. Max Biaggi, the great rival of that golden era, knows what we’re talking about.

After eight seasons as an outright star, at the end of 2023 Jonathan Rea left Kawasaki due to a lack of confidence in the Bimota pivot. In his last three seasons with the Ninja, although he could not block the path of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista, he still finished the World Championship second (2021) and twice third (22-23). Jumping onto the Yamaha of his new rival Toprak, however, proved to be a trap. With the YZF-R1 the champion never really felt at home, and above all he didn’t connect with the team’s technical vision. Changing crew chief, calling to his side one of his former trusted men from Kawasaki, didn’t change the situation one bit.

Had he trusted Provec Racing, the Catalan tech arm that has managed Kawasaki’s factory effort since 2010, we are absolutely certain Jonathan Rea would have kept winning. Not the World Championship, of course, but with Bimota he could have left his mark. If Alex Lowes, the former teammate who wasn’t even in the same league back in the Kawasaki days, can make the podium, imagine Johnny.

In these last outings as a Superbike rider, Jonathan Rea seemed to have partially lifted his head. At Jerez he qualified on the second row, and looked like a candidate for the third step of the podium, the only plausible target in a season dominated by Razgatlioglu and Bulega. Instead his Race 1 ended against the barriers at Turn 4, one of the fastest. He got back up in pain, with his suit abraded, thankfully still in one piece. This cannot be the last image we’re left with of a champion of this stature.

“I would have liked to arrive at the last race, the last day of my career, in a different condition and without the searing pain in my arms,” Jonathan Rea said after the crash. “But unfortunately this is fate.” But he’s a too great a rider to give up like that.

And what if his old friends at Provec gave him a call? With the Bimota from Rimini, even just part-time, we’re convinced that in 2026 this wonderful champion could still make us dream.