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Jonathan Rea

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At last weekend’s Argentinian round for the WorldSBK Championship, the Kawasaki Racing Team had something special in mind for Race 1.

It wasn’t a new race strategy; they didn’t find 10hp extra in the ZX-10RR motor; nor did they make any major chassis changes.

What the team did do though was dig into the 125 years of Kawasaki history, and run with two special throw-back liveries for Saturday’s race.

Links between Jonathan Rea and the MotoGP paddock happen every year, and it probably has something to do with the Northern Irishman’s complete dominance in the World Superbike Championship.

For 2021, the situation is no different – though Rea’s absolute reign in WorldSBK is certainly under question from the results posted by Toprak Razgatlıoğlu, now that the Turk is on the PATA Yamaha YZF-R1.

Still, Rea is perhaps the most deserving rider of a GP ride in motorcycle racing right now, and there are hints that the six-time World Champion could be headed to MotoGP.

We had a bit of a technical snafu on this week’s Paddock Pass Podcast episode, so to keep with our weekly schedule of shows, we are releasing to you this special Patreon show that we recorded two months ago with Jonathan Rea, right after he won the WorldSBK title for the sixth time in a row.

The show sees Steve English sitting down the champion, and while they talk about the season, they also explore topics into other areas, like Rea’s opportunities to race in the MotoGP paddock.

In lieu of an episode from the Paddock Pass Podcast this week, the team instead posted a special show for just our Patreon listeners. In that show, Steve English sits down with six-time WorldSBK Champion Jonathan Rea.

This is a short clip from that interview, and in this segment we see JR talking about his options of moving into the MotoGP paddock throughout the year. It is a pretty frank and honest insight into the two series, which we think you will find interesting.

The level of competition continues to increase in each season of the WorldSBK Championship, but each year Jonathan Rea rises to the occasion, with Kawasaki rider making it six titles in-a-row with the 2020 season.

For this year, the battle for the title came down to the final round of the season, with WorldSBK returning to the Estoril circuit in Portugal because of the coronavirus restrictions.

The new track on the calendar didn’t phase Rea though, as he took the championship easily during Saturday’s race.

World championship motorcycle racing takes another step back to the season returning at Misano.

The next three days sees both MotoGP and WorldSBK teams testing at the Italian circuit, preparing for the resumption of hostilities at Jerez in July and August.

Present are the MotoGP teams of KTM and Aprilia, allowed extra testing due to their status as concessions teams. Aleix Espargaro and Bradley Smith are riding for Aprilia, the second test for the Italian factory.