VOLUME 58 ISSUE 47 NOVEMBER 23, 2021 P71
through the standing water.
After Razgatlioglu went on a
strange line into the final corner
on lap four, Bassani and VDM
were headed for the same piece
of asphalt and they touched.
Bassani fell and slid down the
edge of the main straight, his
bike in the gravel.
That really left Rea and Red-
ding to fight it out up front.
Redding passed into the lead
on the final lap but Rea got him
back again at the right time to
win, by just 0.283 seconds.
Razgatlioglu was relegated to
fourth by the willful VDM, with
the other BMW of Tom Sykes
finishing fifth in his last race in
WorldSBK.
Rea salvaged pride and pace
in race one, and in a very dif-
ferent race two he would do so
again.
Another gigantic fall of rain
came as race two was in prepa-
ration, and the teams got lashed
off the start line as the circuit be-
came a semi-submersible again.
Only an hour and 25 minutes
later we had a 12-lap race two,
for full championship points, on
a wet track with clearing skies
overhead.
Again, a top-four formed out
of the early exchanges, the
three big WorldSBK beasts and
Bassani, but that quartet soon
got caught up by Michael van
der Mark, who plowed his BMW
throne room, at least until race
two, as Rea needed another
rider to get between himself and
his would-be successor.
Redding was over two sec-
onds from Rea's last lifeline.
New champ Razgatlioglu
celebrated with a quick-change
act, complete with customized
modesty screens, out on track,
as his bike, leathers and helmet
went through a gilded transfor-
mation.
The first new champion since
2015, the first Yamaha champion
since Ben Spies in 2009, the
greatest showman around had
really lived up to his team's nick-
name for him—Top Cat—a 1970s
TV cartoon character.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi leads Gerloff in
race one. Gerloff would end the year as
the top Independent rider in the series.
