10 facts for you ahead of the WorldSBK Pirelli Round
Magny Cours, 29 Sept 2020: The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship heads to the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours for the penultimate round of the 2020 season. A regular track on the WorldSBK calendar since 2003 after debuting in 1991, Magny-Cours promises to host thrilling races across the event. Get ready for the Pirelli French Round with ten headlining stats ahead of the weekend’s commencement.
1. Jonathan Rea’s (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) milestones for race starts go in pairs: in the Tissot Superpole Race, he is set for his 300th WorldSBK start, his 160th for Kawasaki. Rea is the fourth man to reach the milestone of 300 WorldSBK starts after Troy Corser (377), Tom Sykes (currently 314) and Noriyuki Haga (313). There is a recurring “160” for Rea in Magny-Cours: last year he recorded here his 160th career podium
2. It’s countdown time for Rea, as he recorded his 97th win in Catalunya, Race 1. At 99 he would be 40 ahead of second-placed in the all-time standings, Carl Fogarty.
3. This year, there’ve been ten podium finishers so far, the highest number since 2015. An eleventh different rider on the podium would take us back to 2013 (12).
4. Sometimes numbers don’t happen by chance: Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team), racing with #31, is the 31st podium finisher for Yamaha in WorldSBK history. This all in the same race as Chaz Davies’ 31st win.
5. Fittingly, as he races with #7, Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) became the seventh different winner in 2020, the highest number of different winners since 2013. There haven’t been eight different victors since 2012.
6. At Catalunya, Garrett Gerloff scored his maiden podium: he is the 14th American on the podium in WorldSBK, the first since the late Nicky Hayden, third at the Lausitzring in 2016’s Race 1. Gerloff is the 124th podium finisher in history.
7. Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) is the only rider who raced 23 times in WorldSBK at Magny-Cours. He made the most out of his starts, as he climbed on the podium in nearly half of them, eleven times.
8. Great Britain is the most successful country at Magny-Cours with 16 wins. That is three times more than their best competitor, Japan, at five wins, all by Noriyuki Haga.
9. The most successful rider here is Jonathan Rea, with six wins: he surpassed Noriyuki Haga (5) last year.
10. The only French winner at Magny-Cours is Sylvain Guintoli (2012 Race 1; 2014 Race 1).
