VOL. 55 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 16, 2018 P53
behind the pits. He had to work
much harder than usual for his
race-two win, but in taking both
Villicum races he set another
new absolute WorldSBK record
with 10 consecutive race wins.
Nobody has done that before, al-
though both Colin Edwards and
Neil Hodgson had both gone
nine races without defeat. Rea
now has 70 wins all in, while 15
of those were for Honda.
Five doubles in a row sounds
like a bachelor party drink-
ing game, but sinking them at
Laguna Seca, Misano, Portimao,
Magny Cours and now Villicum
has helped Rea to get to within
one of the most races scored in
a season (17 in 1991 from Doug
Polen). With two more chances
to go in Qatar, who can stop
KRT's number-one plate pack-
age?
Rea set the lap record at the
2.6-mile circuit on Saturday with
a 1:39.172, which was just a
smidgeon off the qualifying best
from Marco Melandri (Aruba.it
Racing Ducati). There was even
rain on his visor at one stage
shortly after his record lap, but
Rea and co. just ignored it and it
fizzled out harmlessly.
Melandri was Rea's clos-
est challenger in race one, but
these things are all relative, as
Rea was just over nine seconds
ahead at the flag.
Melandri was, in turn, over
two seconds up on third place
man Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawa-
saki Puccetti Racing).
"I had a good start and in
the second corner, Lowes and
Laverty touched and we came
back, fighting, fighting. I saw the
rain flag but I did not close the
gas because I had one chance
for the podium," Razgatlioglu
said of his extravagant and de-
Jonathan Rea (1) is
only one win away from
tying Doug Polen's long
standing season win
record with his 16th
triumph of the year.
