Now , given that list of names - the very best at turning the opportunity to win races into actual race wins - what statistic is now standing on top of the Paddock Show podium screaming out at you in the Fan Zone ?
Remember we are talking about the top regular riders in this story , but it seems that every one of the ten riders with the best race winning percentages in WorldSBK history has been a world Champion - at least once . Not every single rider who has won the Championship is in that top ten ( too many of them ) but all who are inside the top ten % race winners as regular riders went on to become a Champion . Some of them multiple times .
The old racing adage that you have to win races to win Championships is holding much more water than I thought it would when I set out on researching the writing this feature story .
But what about those champs who didn ’ t make the top ten in this particular realm of statistical bragging rights ? The next best of the old champs is Carlos Checa , with 16 % wins to races ratio . Max Biaggi sits with 13.3 %. Tom Sykes ? A 9.3 % winning ratio . Troy Corser , a double Champion of course ? 8.8 %. Another double Champion , James Toseland ( for Ducati and then Honda ) 8 % wins . Scott Russell … dude !? A slightly better 11.9 %.
Racing ’ s very own Monsieur Versatile , Sylvain Guintoli , won 5.2 % of the races he competed in . Neil Hodgson , a single year champ just before we all went to Pirelli control tyres won a greater 10.9 % of the World SBK races through his career .
So you could still be a Champion in WorldSBK without a truly high percentile of race wins . But as we have seen , all top ten riders in the ranking of winning percentages ( as full-on iconic WorldSBK riders at least ) really did become a champ .
So what about podium percentages ? Does the rider list with the most real world career podium percentages also contain nothing but world Champions ?
I am going to say - probably foolhardily - that it won ’ t this time . So here goes .
Number 1 is … Rea , with 63.7 % of his races delivering a podium finish - including all those race wins of course . Astounding : truly so given he has raced in more WorldSBK races than any other single rider . If you want to know what consistency at the top of the Championship long term requires , he ’ s it . That ’ s an especially incredible feat of arms when you consider that the next best rider in podium percentage terms is Ben Spies . He got to 60.7 % in just 28 races compared to Rea ’ s 413 races ! Bizarrely , despite winning half the races in 2009 , Spies only scored three more podiums to add to his total , hence not quite getting past Rea in that particular podium ranking . Racing is weird sometimes , just accept that fact … or your hair will go grey years before it should .
Third best - and only just - is John Kocinski , who raced a Ducati in his personal first year but a Honda in his subsequent Championship winning year . He put in a strong 60.41 % podium statistic , only just heading off the hardest of Aussie chargers ,
Troy Bayliss . His ratio reach of 60.3 % podium finishes was powered by Ducati machinery of course .
Razgatlioglu is at number five in this admittedly esoteric chart rundown , with 59.9 % podium to race prowess .
Raymond Roche is sixth this time around , with 58.8 %.
Guess who ’ s next ? Is it another World Champion maybe ? They ’ ve all been so far , so why not ?
Yes , it is another champ , the most recent one Alvaro Bautista this time , with 52.7 %. We stay in Ducati-ville ( in terms of the bikes they won on at least ) for the next two as well , with Doug Polen recording a straight up 50 % ( 40 podium finishes in 80 race starts ). Polen got two world Championships with his podium figures , but with 49.8 % podium conversion , Carl Fogarty secured four Championships . Go figure …
Supporting the tenth column in this monumental list is , appropriately enough , another Roman who was fond of multiple Championship numerals , Max Biaggi . His personal podium to race start figure ended at 44.9 %. Just don ’ t ask me to write that out in Roman Numerals … please .
The only Aprilia Champion in this top ten stats ranking , Biaggi was a double World Champion , of course .
Which means that my personal gut feeling that there would be at least one non-champion in this top ten of podium percentage all time greats was completely wrong . Unless I missed something , I got that wrong .
The 11th man in podiums was double-top Texan , Colin Edwards , with 42.65 % podium ratio , Then it was the first of the not quite Champions , Aaron Slight on 38 %. This is a big contrast with Aaron ’ s realtively lowly winning ratio of only 5.67 %, but whatever he rode , Slighty was clearly often in the podium parties - at least .
Marco Melandri and Noriyuki Haga were also each on 37-something % and Chaz Davies just less than that with 36.94 .
Personally , I thought Troy Corser , a man of many machines , many wins , and lots of podiums , would have a higher % success than 34.5 %, especially as the fellow Aussie he beat to become Champion for the second time , Chris Vermeulen , secured 35.4 % podium rides all in . But no , Troy C ’ s not in the top ten …
Maybe the most surprising rider statistics from all those mentioned so far are those that Fred Merkel set in winning the first two WorldSBK titles , in 1988 and 89 - each on Rumi Hondas . I knew he did not score so many race wins but Flyin ’ Fred was at least as consistent in general points scores as he was in winning of finishing top three . He would have had to have been a points scorer almost always as he took career ratios of just 6.8 % wins and 20.5 % podiums .
That simply goes against all the evidence of the other Champions needing to dominate the win and podium averages to secure at least one world Championship , never mind two successive ones . There is a great big stats anomaly - the exception that proves the rule .
Every rider would want to have more wins on their final racing CV , of course . But honestly , would you rather have two Championships or a few more race wins ? Yes , me too . World Championships are what they really remember you for .
In many ways , you could say that Merkel was the best of all , as it only needed eight race wins to secure two titles , not just one ? ( And yes , I know there were a lot fewer races in the first season of WorldSBK , but every season since has featured at least 22 races per year ).
So much for the percentages , and relative performances per number of races .
What about the absolute records to help us maybe determine the best ever ?
As we approach this first round of the 2024 season the main stats totals are as follows - and we warn you that will hear the name Rea right at the top here …
OFFICIAL PROGRAMME 46
THE BIG READ