Six-time World Champion Jonathan Rea MBE starts the pursuit of a seventh consecutive title at Motorland Aragon this morning with the first practice sessions of the 2021 World Superbike Championship season ahead of three races over the weekend.

Currently sitting on 99 WSBK victories, Rea is on course to become the first rider in the history of the class to record a century of wins — an iconic milestone when you consider the next man in the rankings is Carl Fogarty with 40 victories.

“I am super-excited to go racing again, because it feels like last season was so long ago,” said Rea. "We have had some really good testing recently, but you can be sure the rest of the field will have been working hard as well and it’s going to be nice to get on track with everybody else to understand where we are.

"You have to expect the unexpected in WSBK, this season more than ever. The target is to start the season strong and try to build some momentum early on. It will be a tough opening two weekends in Aragon and then Estoril. It is great to start at Aragon because we just finished testing at the Spanish circuit. I feel ready and raring to go. Yes, the 100 race wins is in my brain although that’s not a formality.”

The charge to topple Rea and Kawasaki will come from a really strong 2021 line-up including Ducati, with last year’s runner-up Scott Redding, who took two wins at Aragon last year, newcomer to the factory team Michael Rinaldi and Chas Davies on the Team Go Eleven version, while Pata Yamaha have Toprak Razgatlioglu and last year’s Supersport champion Andrea Locatelli with Garrett Gerloff on the GRT Yamaha.

Honda are expected to have made improvements from last season and Leon Haslam with Alvaro Bautista could make a strong start. BMW, with their all-new M 1000RR, have Tom Sykes in his third season with the team and new recruit Michael van der Mark chasing podiums.

Eugene Laverty joins the Independents ranks in 2021, riding a factory supported BMW Motorrad M 1000RR as he makes his debut for the RC Squadra Corse Team.

“The good thing is I did my only pre-season test at Aragon, so I’m prepared for the opening round,” said Laverty.

"Like everybody else, I would always like more test days, but at least I’ll arrive at Aragon fast immediately and comfortable on the bike. With four BMW machines on the grid this year, vital shared data collection should help with our overall competitiveness.”

Randalstown’s James McManus, meanwhile, competes for Team #109 Kawasaki in World Supersport 300, his second race in the highly competitive class.