Assen's story as a WorldSBK track is a long and often glorious one, with only Phillip Island having held more races than the Dutch track for the biggest form of production racing there is.
At Assen, Jonathan Rea also made some records – again - in race one. He is now equal with Carl Fogarty on 12 Assen race wins. And also ahead of Nori Haga, on career podiums, sitting second on his own.
In his pomp, Foggy was almost unbeatable at Assen, and everyone said back then that nobody would ever approach the prowess of the four-time champion at The Cathedral.
Understandable because even someone as potent as Troy Bayliss has ‘only’ six Assen race wins. But between Rea and Assen, a strange chemistry exists.
“Sometimes it is difficult because sometimes people talk about Assen and me like it is a foregone conclusion that I will come and win but it is really not that easy. Especially this weekend when it looked great until the race but van der Mark and Chaz stepped up big time," Rea told bikesportnews.com.
"But I have done a lot of testing here with my previous team, it was 40 minutes down the road, and before the testing ban we could come here with big quiet mufflers and knock out the laps. It is a real racers’ circuit. For guys who do not have the bike working perfect you can always make the difference. Even when I rode with Honda in the early days I could always make the difference.
"In my second year with Honda I did a double in 2010. An incredible weekend, and I had no business doing that. I only wish I was around when the old track was here because it was even faster. Here you need a set of big balls. I dunno why I am going so fast then!”
Rea equalling Foggy on day one was predicted by many, and everybody had flagged up to him that one race win would do it.
“I have equalled Foggy’s Assen win record now, 12, so just to be compared with him is already cool,” said Rea when asked about matching and beating records. It is never something I looked at stat wise but people were last year talking, about the three championships in a row, about equalling Foggy’s record (of four titles in WorldSBK).
"For me a personal target was to try and surpass his race win tally, 59. I am getting close to that, which is nice – 57 now. That is something I can be really proud of. I am motivated by championships and race wins. Statistics are nice, of course, and I hope that in the future, for many years, people will look back and consider me as one of the greats of Superbike.
"Maybe now we are going through ‘my’ era – like the Foggy era or the Bayliss era. So I hope people can look back like that, but stats are stats, there is always somebody gonna come and smash them.”
Rea was blown away to know that he had matched Foggy’s win count in Holland, and even more surprised that he had drawn away from Noriyuki Haga for a stand alone second in podiums, with 117 all in. He thinks Corser’s total of 130 career podiums will take him until he is 90 to reach.
Like any active racer, his most important win is the next one, but Rea has had some moments of realisation of what he is doing in context with others when it is pointed out to him. Surpassing Bayliss’ win total and equalling his record of championships are two stand-out examples.
“I mean Troy was like ‘the Bayliss era,’ so to be considered like that was completely awesome. Foggy for me was a legend because he was UK, but he was just a little bit before my time, before I understood what was what. But I remember watching Bayliss quite a lot and understanding the level and his aura. He brought a lot to Superbike. So when it was pointed out I thought, ‘wow, I have done something really great.’ To go on to compete with Foggy’s records would be incredible.”
