Two Out Of Three For Tom Sykes In BSB
F
ormer WorldSBK Champion,
Tom Sykes (Ducati) took two
out of three race victories at the
latest round of the 2022 British
Superbike Championship at Don-
ington Park, October 1-2.
Sykes had yet to win since
rejoining the championship after
a decade in the WorldSBK pad-
dock, but he put his Ducati in
third on the grid behind polesitter
Jason O'Halloran (Yamaha) and
Bradley Ray (Yamaha).
He would then go on to take
the first Sprint race win by 1.4
seconds from O'Halloran and Isle
of Man TT star Peter Hickman and
then backing that up with another
1.4-second win, this time over Ray
and Honda's Glenn Irwin.
Race three, however, did not
go to plan for Sykes, as he failed
to finish in a race won by Ray
from Andrew Irwin (BMW) and
his brother Glenn. As Sykes held
third place, he had O'Halloran for
company and on the sixth lap,
the Yamaha rider making a mis-
take into the Melbourne Hairpin,
colliding with Sykes and crashing
out. Sykes was consequently
forced to retire from the race.
Bradley Ray leads the series
with 1171 points to Irwin's 1105
and Tommy Bridewell's 1104.
The weekend was marred
when Chrissy Rouse crashed
heavily on the opening lap of
race three while exiting God-
dards Corner and was struck
by following rider. The race was
immediately stopped.
Rouse sustained significant
head injuries. He was stabilized
and put in a medically induced
coma at the medical center
before being transferred to the
hospital for further investigations
and treatment.
He underwent an emergency
neurosurgical procedure shortly
after admission and remains fully
sedated in a serious condition in
the intensive care unit.
CN
IN
THE
WIND
P44
Tom Sykes snakes the PBM
Ducati on his way to the race-two
win at Donington Park.
