Jonathan Rea says Grand Prix legend Giacomo Agostini's race wins record is 'incredible target'

​Agostini, a 15-time Grand Prix world champion, won 122 races throughout his career from 1964-1977 and is regarded as the greatest GP rider ever.

Ulsterman Rea is the most successful World Superbike rider in history, winning six successive titles from 2015 to 2020 with Kawasaki. He sealed his 118th race win at the final round of the 2022 championship at Phillip Island last November, where the new campaign begins in earnest on Saturday with the opening race of the season.

Rea has ripped up the record books and while he has set many new milestones in World Superbikes, the 36-year-old says matching or surpassing Agostini’s haul of race wins is an ‘incredible target to aim for’.

“I’m not really a stats guy but someone told me I’m only a couple of wins behind Giacomo Agostini’s race wins tally, so that would be an incredible target to aim for – why not?” Rea told the News Letter.

“Race wins motivate me and that’s something I’m going to keep working my ass off for, because that feeling of crossing the line first and being the first guy to see the chequered flag can’t be replicated.

“We’re all in this year to give it our best shot and we will see where we end up.”

Rea finished third in the championship last year behind Alvaro Bautista and Toprak Razgatlioglu, his lowest position since he also came third in 2014.

He won six races and stood on the podium 30 times in 36 races, but the Kawasaki rider believes he needs to ‘step up’ this year to have any chance of winning the world title for a seventh time.

“We need to step up if we’re going to try and fight for a race win this weekend,” he added.

“The guys in the garage are working really hard to give me a bike to do that and right now I think we have a realistic chance of fighting for a podium, so that’s the target.”

In free practice on Friday, Rea was fifth fastest overall after posting his best time in the morning.

However, the afternoon’s hotter track temperatures caused problems for his Kawasaki, leaving Rea 14th in FP2.

Reigning champion Alvaro Bautista dominated on his Aruba.it Ducati and was 0.446s ahead of Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha), with Honda’s Iker Lecuona third fastest ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Ducati).