The top 15 riders in WorldSBK in terms of outright race wins obviously contain the bulk of the top riders in terms of winning percentages , but not all of them have such spectacular win scores . Rea tops the winning table right now with 119 all-in ( 15 Honda and the rest Kawasaki ) but maybe by Sunday this weekend he will have made it a round 120 …? Put nothing past the bloke , even in his first competitive R1 rides .
Given his many years on a not quite fully competitive Honda , Rea ’ s entire career winning record stands at 28.8 %. But his overall podium percentage is vast - 63.7 %. If we consider just his Kawasaki performances ( even including the tough time he had last season ) Rea ’ s totals rise to 38 % wins and fully 80.9 % podiums , all from 273 Kawasaki race starts .
Good point now maybe to remember that not every rider , not even the best rider in terms of outright race win numbers , is always on potential race winning machinery every weekend . Or even over several seasons , if there are more winning bums than winning seats . And there usually are . But those figures for Rea are just outrageous .
Let ’ s look now at Alvaro Bautista , a perfect formed winning machine on his Ducati . Also , remember , a rider who has competed hard on a not-quite-there Honda in two of his total of five years as a WorldSBK rider .
A kind of Rea mirror image .
Remember the start Alvaro made with Ducati in 2019 , at this very track ? Three wins from three , first weekend out in WorldSBK ? The new Ducati and mega-experienced MotoGP™ rider Bautista made short work of even ( at that time ) four season Champion Rea . The ‘ Alvarocati ’ went on to enjoy twothirds of a truly dominant season , before all aspects of the combined effort folded in on each other towards the end .
Over his whole career to date , Bautista has started 108 races on a Ducati , and won 59 on them . That ’ s a winning percentage of 55 %. Ready for the podium percentage ? About 82 %, just more than Rea ’ s Kawasaki-only figures .
While we ’ re talking about these two modern statistical giants , Rea and Bautista , let ’ s look at Toprak Razgatlioglu ’ s figures . It was Kawasaki in his rookie times , then he was paired with Yamaha and won the Championship in 2021 .
Toprak has won 20.3 % of his 192 career races , thanks to his 39 victories . And has a podium ratio of 59.8 % in all races . Isolate his Yamaha years ( 131 races on an R1 now ), when he did most of his winning , and those percentages rise to 28 % wins and 76 % podiums .
So much for the current big three , what about the greats of the past ?
In terms of pure race wins to starts ratio , Ben Spies and his unprecedented 50 % race winning ratio on his way to a single season win , was pretty special .
He may have only started 28 WorldSBK races in his entire life , but he won 14 of them and was a Champion straight off . It would be deeply churlish to exclude him as the leading candidate in terms of bang for buck GOAT contenders even with Just one full season under his belt . After all , MotoGP™ came calling and he would eventually win a race there . Not that many ex-WorldSBK riders have done that . Spies ’ podium stats per race that magic WorldSBK season were 60.71 % success …
Why so exact ?
Well , another one time WorldSBK Champion from America , John Kocinski , ‘ only ’ has a race winning ratio of 29.1 %. But in two seasons , on two different bikes , he posted a 60.41 % podium figure , just ( and only just ) behind Spies ’ s single year best .
If we are prepared to take Spies ’ 50 % winning ratio as the high water mark ( Sorry Mick …) for regular WorldSBK riders then the next best over their whole career is Bautista with 34.9 %. The best American is third overall , with double early years Champion Doug Polen ’ s ratio being 33.75 %.
Then three-time Champion Troy Bayliss ( Ducati ) is on 33.33333 %…. repeating to infinity and beyond . Like all good Troy stories should …
Kocinski is fifth best % winner , and only then do we get to Rea in sixth place ( thanks to those missing years away from Kawasaki ) with his aforementioned 28.81 %.
Carl Fogarty is in seventh heaven with 26.9 %, while Raymond Roche takes eighth spot overall , with 23 % of his starts being converted to wins .
Toprak Razgatlioglu is ninth with 20.31 % and the top ten is rounded out by … Colin Edwards , a two-time World Champion for Honda . 17.7 % is his win ratio .