Winning the WorldSBK Championship at the very last round may have been only mildly nail-biting for Jonathan Rea and his KRT squad during this short season, but it was actually good news for the series itself.

WorldSBK does not usually see titles going all the way in what was already long ago the ‘Rea Era’ of the series.

No 100th career race win in race one at Estoril for Rea, and he did go about things the hard way after crashing in Superpole and then starting 15th on the grid, but it was an even worse day for his only reaming rival, Scott Redding (Aruba.it Ducati).

His Superpole crash and then DNF meant Rea did not even have to fight for the podium he just missed out on - with an imperfect set-up on his very recently crashed and rebuilt official Kawasaki.

Winning the big award with fourth on Saturday was a bit weird, even if it always looked a certainty this weekend, with Rea only needed three more points than Redding across all three races.

He is not fully celebrating it yet either. He does after all have more work to do with two races on Sunday and the magic 100 to reach if he takes even just one win.

“I am quite numb with feeling,” said Rea, not surrounded by friends, family and his usual cadre of fans from Northern Ireland, due to Covid restrictions.

“When I won the championship in the past in the split races it was very hard emotionally to go really high because my focus goes straight away to tomorrow to try and improve the package. But I am just so grateful to be in this position to have this opportunity with KRT. They have been incredible.”

To have a season at all to win his sixth title in a row during is a small miracle, and Rea knows it very well. It was hardly a classic start in Australia during round one.

“I could not have imagined to be here six or seven months ago and then crashing out of the first round of the championship… and then during lockdown not knowing if we would go racing again.”

Rea was also a little concerned after he saw the more or less final revised calendar for 2020, as some of his favourite circuits were not included, and lots of horsepower circuits with long straights that may suit the Ducati more were in there.

“When I saw the calendar released from SBK… if I could pick any seven tracks they would not have been the seven we have raced at.

"They are not the strongest track for me, or my machine; but we have done an incredible job as a team. We have worked together and maximised every opportunity we have had.

"To even come into the final round of an eight round championship with a large points gap is testament to all the had work that has gone in behind the scenes and the relentlessness we put in through that mid part of the season.”

The last two championships in Rea’s collection of six (the team celebrated this time around by presenting him with six different oversized ‘superbowl style’ rings trackside) have been the weirdest, if each one being very different.

I think last year was one of the toughest in my career, because we came from so far back in the championship with the target to win, but we did not understand how we could win.

"The work ethic inside the team, never giving up, we got there in the end and we got there by a huge margin come Qatar (the final round). This year has been a little bit different.

"I think the crash in Australia was the best thing in disguise, because I went home and worked my ass off during lockdown. Mentally it was really tough - it was tough for everybody in that position - but to be home with my wife and two kids, 24/7 for so many months was tough.

"So I threw myself into the gym, worked really hard on my physical training. I dropped some kilos and when I arrived at Jerez – even through the results don’t show it – I felt like we had a really good Jerez.

"That mid-part of the season where we viewed our circuits as weaker circuits for us, we managed to capitalise and win the overalls, and from that point we had a grip of the championship and looking back it has been incredible.”

Rea will go for not only win 100 on Sunday, but win 101 too - if he possibly can. His crew chief Pere Riba was planning a big set-up change for Sunday to get Rea back into race winning contention, even before the cheering had stopped inside the team garage.