Navarra WorldSBK:
All Square With Six To Go
A
fter the various kinds of world
championship fights that
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing
Team) has won for six straight
years, there has never been one
quite like this. Rea now has two
riders making his life hard, and
both on different bikes that are
making his own look third best in
some ways right now.
The fact that Toprak Razgatlio-
glu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx) and
Scott Redding (Aruba Ducati) are
the riders giving Rea the rough-
est time is not surprising, and
there is now a very definite big
three, all taking turns to be the
dominant one, as was the case
at the Pirelli Navarra round of the
2021 FIM WorldSBK Champion
in Spain, August 20-22.
Weekend by weekend, race
by race, their prowess waxes
and wanes but at this round,
nothing was predictable even
after Redding had two clear race
wins.
We all expected a third, but it
was not forthcoming—so much
for predictions.
In Superpole qualifying Rea
posted a new track best of
1:36.122 and made some more
history, as he joined Ben Spies
(from his magic 2009 season on
a Yamaha) as the only other rider
to take seven consecutive pole
positions.
With Redding second and
Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad) third
on the grid there was no sign of
championship challenger Toprak
Razgatlioglu on the front row, as
he was only eighth, starting from
the third row.
IN
THE
WIND
P42
Toprak Razgatlioglu
is bringing the fire
in 2021 to Jonathan
Rea. His race-two
win makes him
joint leader in the
WorldSBK standings
with six rounds to go.
