Rea resumes historic World Superbike title hunt

Following his dominant victory run heading into the summer break, Jonathan Rea can close in an historic fourth consecutive World Superbike title starting at Portimao this weekend.

The reigning World Superbike champion resumes the 2018 campaign with a 92-point advantage over nearest challenger Chaz Davies, after charging to five wins from six races before the summer break, with four rounds and a maximum of 200 points available to score.

But with the Argentina event remaining uncertain despite being scheduled to host the penultimate round, Rea could move to the edge of sealing his fourth straight WorldSBK title at the Portuguese round where he took a dominant double victory 12 months ago.

“I am very excited to go back to Portimao because it is a circuit that I really enjoy,” Rea said. “It has been a really long summer break so the test at Portimao a few weeks ago really helped to whet my appetite to get back.

“We worked on a range of different chassis items and also some Pirelli tyres but the real work will start this weekend when we look to get the set-up of the Ninja ZX-10RR dialled in for the circuit conditions, and then try to do the best job we can.

“There is a lot of support coming from back home and I am really excited about that. The target is clear - to try and win two races.”

Rea is favourite to secure a historic fourth consecutive World Superbike title which would see him draw level with Carl Fogarty for all-time most world championships. Earlier this year Rea also claimed the outright most wins record in the series from Fogarty while he already holds the most consecutive titles record (three – 2015-2017).