News 10 Jul 2017

Rea completes Laguna Seca WorldSBK with race two victory

Defending champion comes from behind to dominate the final outing.

Source: Supplied.

As the GEICO US round drew to a close at Laguna Seca’s eighth round of the Motul Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK), it was defending champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) who took the victory ahead of Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).

Rea came from eighth on the grid to take a dominant win over the rest of the field with the KRT man beating his nearest challenger – teammate Sykes – by 2.887s, to open up a 59-point advantage at the head of the standings going into the summer break.

It is the Northern Irishman’s second win at the American venue and he dedicated the victory to the late Nicky Hayden. Davies did his best to pursue Sykes for second place over the final laps but just could not catch the Yorkshireman and had to settle for third, following his comeback win in race one.

Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Xavi Fores (BARNI Racing Team) completed the top five in the hot conditions at the spectacular Californian track, as Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) bounced back immediately from his opening race DNF for a good sixth place finish, with another Aprilia equipped rider Leandro Mercado (IODARacing) in seventh.

Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia) was just behind Laverty and Mercado on the Aprilia RSV4 RF in eighth place, with the top 10 completed by Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team colleagues Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark.

Raffaele de Rosa (Althea BMW Racing Team), Jordi Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Ayrton Badovini (Grillini Racing Team) all suffered crashes, whilst there was an early retirement for Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse).

After the summer break the 2017 Motul Superbike World Championship riders will return to action at the Prosecco DOC German round over the 18-20 August weekend.

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