Rea secured eighth and seventh place finishes while deputising for the injured Casey Stoner in the Repsol Honda team in 2012 but says he can have no regrets about not competing in the series as a suitable offer never came his way.
“I can’t regret something that was never really a realistic option. Back in the early days when I was with Honda I got offered the chance to ride the open class bike, a ‘B’ class ride within the MotoGP championship, but that was never on my radar.
“When you’re competing at world championship level you want at least the competitive tools to fight with the best guys in the world.
“I’ve always been very fortunate to be mentioned about going to MotoGP or having talks with MotoGP. My management has always pushed hard and had the right conversations but I’ve never had a contract in front of me to go there.
“So I can’t really regret it but I did get that opportunity in 2012 with the most iconic team and bike in GP history. I feel like I ticked the box at least, got good points, raced against one of the greatest of all time, Valentino Rossi. I had that experience and really enjoyed it.”
Away from the track, Rea received recognition for his achievements in the form of finishing second in the 2017 Sports Personality of the Year award, receiving around 3,000 fewer public votes than the winner, renowned athlete Sir Mo Farah.
“It [SPOTY] was incredible. When I was second it was amazing, at an awards ceremony that people have to vote for.
“I got a huge vote which we can be proud of, for Northern Ireland, but also for the motorcycle world to share the spotlight with mainstream sport, was really nice and proud to put motorcycling on the map.”
Rea expects his final weekend in World Superbike to be a special one.
“I imagine it’s going to be a weekend full of emotion. It’ll be nice to have all my family there.
“I’m retiring but the last round of the series everyone wants to finish well because it’s the one that you remember throughout the off-season.
“It would be so nice to stand on the podium again. That would be a massive target to finish the year off. If we could achieve that, it would be the icing on the cake.”
