Who Is Jonathan Rea?
Jonathan Rea is the most successful rider in the history of the Superbike World Championship. He won six titles in a row from 2015 to 2020, all of them with Kawasaki, and closed his full-time career with 119 race wins and 264 podium finishes, both championship records.
His first seven Superbike seasons were spent on a Honda. He joined the Ten Kate team in 2008, finished that year as runner-up in the Supersport World Championship, and made his Superbike debut at the final round at Portimão. Seven years followed for 15 wins and one podium finish in the championship standings, third in 2014.
Kawasaki changed the shape of his career. He moved for 2015 as Tom Sykes’s team-mate and won 14 of the 26 races at the first attempt. At Brno in June 2018 his 60th win took him past Carl Fogarty’s record, and in 2019 he scored 663 points, the highest total of his career. The sixth straight title came in 2020.
He retired from full-time racing in August 2025, after two winless seasons on a Yamaha. He returned to Honda the following year as its official test rider, won the Suzuka 8 Hours in July 2026 and has ridden the factory Superbike at three rounds as a stand-in and wildcard.
