VOLUME 57 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 20, 2020 P41
Davies came through at a pace
good enough for second and Gar-
rett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) fought
back to finish third.
Redding felt his bike go wrong
under him suddenly, and he
pulled out, the championship
sealed from that point on.
With Michael van der Mark (Pata
Yamaha) out after a crash (having
just set the fastest lap) Davies, in a
race-one runner-up spot, made his
overall third championship place
secure; ironic as he had been
ousted by Ducati for 2021 just a
few days before.
In the Superpole race on Sunday
morning, Redding and Rea carved
through from their repeated unhelp-
ful starting positions, with Rea up to
fifth before his own progress was
halted, and Redding taking some
time to pass the Honda pairing of
Alvaro Bautista and Leon Haslam.
The major story of the sprint race
was that all the podium places were
taken by Yamaha riders, the first
time 1988. Razgatlioglu won again,
Gerloff was a career best second,
and van der Mark was third.
For the final race of the
weekend, yet another potential
100th career win for Rea, Da-
vies stamped his mark on it in
impressive style, partly because
Razgatlioglu had no grip and drive
from his rear, particularly on lefts,
and thus he had no fight to give
Davies when the red rider went
steamrollering into the lead on lap
two. Redding managed to break
free from Toprak into second,
after some tough battling.
Rea tried to pass Razgatlioglu
inside into turn three, but when
Toprak closed back in, Rea tried
to stop, he tucked the front and
hit the Turkish rider. The Yamaha
wobbled and continued; Rea's
Kawasaki spun out, fell and got a
bit bent. He picked it up, got go-
ing last, and finished 14th.
Kawasaki's interest in race two
was intense, especially with Rea
out, as they still needed good
results of a kind to keep Ducati
behind in the Manufacturers'
Championship.
They managed it—by one
point—and only thanks to Kawa-
saki Puccetti Racing privateer
rider Xavi Fores, in a final eighth
place, making Fores the man of
the Kawasaki moment on Sunday,
before he loses his ride in 2021.
Overall, Rea was 55 points
ahead of Redding this year, but in
total six other riders won races,
three of them more than once.
Rinaldi won the Independent
Riders' title at Estoril. And another
flowering of the championship
this year, despite all the Covid
weirdness, was the resurgence
of the "privateers." Add multiple
podium men like Gerloff (GRT
Yamaha) and Loris Baz (Ten Kate
Racing Yamaha) and that is a
vindication of the technical rule
changes and inherent balances in
modern WorldSBK racing.
As for Gerloff, "It is just nice
to look around and say that I
have ridden with these guys and
beaten some of them," he said.
"You look at things with a different
perspective, a little bit. Also, the
Yamaha R1 has felt really good the
last three races, which has been
awesome thanks to my team and
my crew chief making the bike feel
the way it does. I am more moti-
Toprak Razgatlioglu gave Yamaha
something to smile about during
the off-season after winning race
one and Superpole.
