He didn't have much chance, but Jonathan Rhea still gave it a try. Crowned with three world Superbike titles with Kawasaki, the man from the north of Ireland knocked on the door of HRC. It was received, but the competition proved far too strong with a certain Jorge Lorenzo ! Without any other prospect of a factory handlebar which was his requirement, Rea will continue for two more years on a ZX-10R with which he enters the legend of the WSBK category.
Because if we add his 15 Honda victories to the 45 wins on the Kawasaki, we have there the absolute record holder in number of successes in WSBK. 60 achievements, and the series is ongoing. To the three crowns already taken, a fourth presents itself since Sale leads the current championship with 65 points ahead of Chaz Davies, official Ducati. In the statistics, there is only Troy Corser and his 130 podiums which are ahead of him since the driver in green claims 123.
He crossed out Carl Fogarty tablets and if he wins at the end of the year for the fourth time, he would have as many titles as him, but won consecutively. Aged 31, he joined the Ninja cause in 2014. All that remains is for Kawasaki to decide on his teammate, the day after a meeting in Brno where the holder of the position Tom Sykes stuck with his leader... He is said to be leaving for Yamaha which would allow Van der Mark to jump from the R1 to the Kawasaki. Like a sort of exchange of good manners…
