Rea Captures Sixth WorldSBK Title
J
onathan Rea's latest WorldS-
BK Championship win on his
KRT Kawasaki may have been his
best one but the ending was not a
classic weekend at Estorial (Por-
tugal), October 17-18, that many
had expected.
It has been a weird season in
the time of Covid-19, and it ended
with a mixture of flourishes and
flatness for some of the main par-
ticipants. People could have bet
their shirt on Rea winning at least
one race in Portugal to make it 100
for his career, but Rea never even
podiumed in Estoril at a "new"
track for almost every rider in the
paddock. But he got the big job,
the championship win, boxed off
on day one after Scott Redding
no-scored when his bike failed.
Rea said of the yearlong battle:
"We started behind like last year
but never gave up. It has been a
hell of a journey."
Fifteenth in Superpole, then
4-5-14 in the races, it was like mini-
chaos had descended on "Team
65" at the end of a year when KRT
held it together way better, more
consistently, than anybody else.
None of it mattered though, as
Redding (Aruba.it Ducati) never got
to win any one of the three races
he needed to win. Race two was
his best shot but after magnificent
race one and Superpole dominant
displays by Toprak Razgatlioglu
(Pata Yamaha), it was Chaz Davies
who won the very last one this sea-
son on a Ducati. His race-two win,
the 32nd of his career, was his last
as an official Ducati rider.
The first race was pre-empted
by a five-rider crash-fest in Super-
pole that left Rea on the fifth row
and Redding right off the back
of the grid. Pre-finale nerves, it
seems, for both, or being sucked
into going too fast too early, but
either way, they found themselves
in crazy start-line territory for race
one and it probably cost Redding
a race finish in the opener.
Up front, pole man Razgatlioglu
was just gone in any case, as he
demonstrated the best of his full
commitment riding style in truly
immaculate fashion.
Rea, went from 15th to seventh
on lap one, and third on lap three.
He clearly wanted to try and win
again, but it was not to be, as
IN
THE
WIND
P40
Jonathan Rea
didn't close out the
2020 WorldSBK
Championship as a
race winner, but he
did wrap up his sixth
WorldSBK title.
PHOTOS: GOLD & GOOSE
