Jonathan Rea
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Jonathan ' Jonny' Rea (born on March 2, 1987) is a motorcycle racer from Ballymena, Northern Ireland.
Rea was British 60cc motocross champion in 1997, before moving up through the motocross classes and switching to circuit racing in 2003 in the British 125cc championship. For much of his career he has been backed by Red Bull. After his 2004 season was interrupted by a crash at Knockhill, they set up a British Superbike ride for him in 2005 on a factory-spec Honda Fireblade. He showed his potential by snatching a pole position from the established names, and finished 16th in the series despite missing 2 races, at Snetterton after a heavy testing crash, and at Oulton Park after the death of a junior team-mate in the previous event.
He started the 2006 season strongly, lying 6th in the championship after 5 meetings. At Oulton Park he finished 3rd in race 2, before being demoted to 4th as he was deemed to have gained a place form Shane Byrne on the last lap illegally, although he claimed that he crossed the infield grass as he was squeezed out of road. He qualified 5th at Mondello Park before heavy rain forced the cancellation of the races, and claimed that he had been on race tyres, rather than special soft qualifying compounds. He impressed at Mallory Park too, qualifying on the front row and running 2nd until high-siding in race 1, despite having no race engineer for the weekend. At Knockhill he took pole position, and followed a 4th in race 1 with his first career podium in race 2, passing Leon Haslam for 2nd with 2 laps to go. He ultimately took 4th in the championship, ahead of the factory Honda of Karl Harris, whose ride he took for 2007, alongside reigning champion Ryuichi Kiyonari of Japan.
