{"id":382634,"date":"2025-12-31T13:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T13:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/382634\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T13:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T13:21:10","slug":"jonathan-rea-felt-like-a-character-that-was-going-to-die-in-lead-up-to-worldsbk-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/382634\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Rea \u201cfelt like a character that was going to die\u201d in lead up to WorldSBK retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Jonathan Rea\u2019s retirement from full-time racing in WorldSBK made him feel like \u201ca character in a game that was going to die,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Rea announced his retirement mid-way through the 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Superbike<\/a> season, one-and-a-half years through a two-season stint with Yamaha the yielded, in the end, only one podium and one pole position for the 119-time race winner.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It was a decision that Rea was sure about making, but one that created a fear about what would come afterwards.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI found this decision\u2019s crept up quite quickly, actually; I felt like a character in a game that was going to die,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\/racer\/1555\/jonathan-rea\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jonathan Rea<\/a> said during a press conference held before the final round of 2025 in Jerez.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI was quite worried and sad about that, but I realised that character will still live, but in a different game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Although he was concerned about making the decision, Rea said that it was made easier by some of the negative aspects of racing, including the injuries he\u2019s had in the past two years.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThank you to Superbike, they\u2019ve given me so much in my career, but it also takes a lot away from you as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of tough moments. I\u2019ve lost friends, colleagues, and endured lots of time in A&amp;E and hospital rooms, which makes the decision to walk away much easier, so I\u2019m looking forward to my life coming at a much slower pace, spending time with my family, enjoying the next new challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cJust a real heartfelt thanks for everything because without SBK, and all the teams and technical crews I\u2019ve worked with, giving me the platform to do this job, I would be just another fast kid on a motocross bike or a motorcycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cSo, thank you very much, you\u2019ve made all my dreams come true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonathan Rea\u2019s retirement from full-time racing in WorldSBK made him feel like \u201ca character in a game that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,9400,52088,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-382634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-honda-hrc","11":"tag-jonathan-rea","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}