Rea Wins Them All At Donington WorldSBK
J
onathan Rea (Kawasaki Rac-
ing Team) had to give best to
Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad) in
Superpole, but in all other re-
spects, he ruled the Donington
Park WorldSBK weekend, July
6-7. But, at times, he looked like
he had to summon up the spirit of
all four of his recent successive
championship wins to do it.
In a wet first race, in which his
mastery of these conditions was
underlined, he beat Donington
magician Sykes for the win and
then won in the dry over Toprak
Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti
Racing) in the second race.
The Tissot-Superpole race
on Sunday did not even get to
its short 10-lap scheduled dura-
tion, as Peter Hickman (BMW
Motorrad, standing in for the
sick Markus Reiterberger), had a
major technical problem and oil
spread across the entire braking
area into the Melbourne loop.
The red flags came out after five
riders had fallen in quick succes-
sion.
The leaders, under a red flag
and going slowly, eventually hap-
pened upon the scene. Rea had
a moment on the oil, and Sykes
fell, with Razgatlioglu and Haslam
behind missing out on disaster.
Sykes had to go back to the pit
lane on a scooter, and because
he did not get back to pit lane
within the allotted time with his
bike, he was excluded, losing a
certain second place.
He was furious, as the crash
was not his fault, but the rules are
there and were adhered to.
Rea would still most probably
have won anyway, but Sykes' bad
luck saw Razgatlioglu second and
Haslam third.
Rea and Razgatlioglu had a
great fight all through the 23-lap
final race in dry conditions.
IN
THE
WIND
P24
Incredibly, Jonathan Rea
has turned the tables and
now leads the WorldSBK
Championship by 24 points.
