Jonathan Rea primed for first ‘match point’ as sixth WorldSBK title approaches

Jonathan Rea heads into this weekend’s penultimate 2020 WorldSBK Championship round at Magny-Cours with the mathematical potential to continue his record-breaking run of title successes.
 
The combination of Rea and Kawasaki have been the overwhelmingly dominant force in WorldSBK since joining forces in 2015, the Ulsterman smashing a series of record including becoming the first person to win five titles.
 
Now he stands to put the record further out of future reach as he tees up a sixth crown, even if his current 51 point advantage over Scott Redding means it isn’t a formality the race could be kept alive to the final round to be held in Estoril.
 
Nonetheless, with a maximum of 62 points available from the weekend (124 in total from the final two events), Rea would ‘only’ need to out-score closest rival Scott Redding by 11 points for Magny-Cours - something he has done for the last two rounds - to be the scene of yet another triumph.
 
“Magny Cours is a circuit I have a lot of special memories of in the past. Recently they have resurfaced the circuit so we need to pay attention to that. In Magny Cours we will face cooler weather conditions than we have for most of this season’s championship. 
 
“There is always the possibility that it will be wet but we will just take that in our stride. Magny is different to the circuits we have been riding on during the season so far. It is very stop and go, with a lot of hard acceleration and fast changes of direction. We have been strong in those areas in the past so we just need to understand our base set-up and manipulate that as the track requests. 
 
“I have been feeling good with the bike this season and I am excited to get stuck in. Of course, while we need to keep one eye on the weather forecast, the target is always the same - to win races and go step-by-step.”

Having added a further nine victories to his tally this season alone, Rea has now amassed 97 career WorldSBK wins - well clear of the next best Carl Fogarty on a 'mere' 59 wins.