Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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15th in Race Two, on his Mo- toAmerica squad's Attack Perfor- mance Yamaha. "For sure, figuring out the bike setup with the Pirellis was a big part, and trying to figure out how to ride the Pirellis differently was the biggest challenge for me, as a rider. But I'm glad we were able to put it all together and be here as a team." Now Razgatlioglu is a still stocky 56 points behind Bautista, not the slightly fatter 59 points behind he was at the start of the race weekend in Portugal. In the championship Bautista has 448 points, Razgatlioglu 392, Rea 366, Rinaldi 232, Lo- catelli 196 and Lowes 189. The next round will be held in Argentina, at the modern San Juan Villicum circuit between 21- 23 October. WorldSSP Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Yamaha) scored the Superpole "win" in qualifying, smashing the old lap record by almost a sec- ond. He was by no means going to get it all his own way in the first race, however. A little bit of WorldSSP history was made when Stefano Manzi (Dynavolt Triumph) took the British manufacturer's first-ever WorldSSP race win, holding off the hard-chasing Lorenzo Bal- dassarri (Evan Bros Yamaha) by just 0.011 seconds. Very close behind was Federi- co Caricasulo (Althea Ducati) but it was the Triumph that recorded the first WorldSSP Race win between the three competing "Next Generation" manufactur- ers—Triumph, Ducati and MV Agusta. Which is strange, be- cause The "Trumpet" is easily the most "road bike" of any of those designs. The donor bike has no full fairing, for starters. Championship leader Domi- nique Aegerter (Ten Kate Yama- ha) was only fourth on Saturday, getting a hard time from several riders. He was, however, only 0.309 seconds from the win. In Race Two the action was even more intense as a solid group of leading riders block- passed and scrapped away until there were the inevitable running wide and even crashing inci- dents. The most significant was when Baldassarri overcooked the first turn on the brakes, collided with Nikki Tuuli's MV Agusta and Manzi could also not help but be taken out by the stricken Tuuli. Second in the second Porti- mao race was the late-charging Rafaelle De Rosa (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Ducati), from Can Oncu's Puccetti Kawasaki. Up front Aegerter won his 13th race of the season, a new WorldSSP season record, as he went 45 points ahead of Baldas- sarri in the championship fight. Third place overall is occupied by Oncu, who moved further ahead of Nicolo Bulega. The Ducati rider's entire race plan went out the window when he failed to set a lap in Superpole qualifying, due to a technical issue. The championship dream was moved further away from the otherwise potent Baldassarri in Portimao, but the most memo- rable thing about this round in a pure racing sense is that Triumph has made a winning machine in WorldSSP, with the PTR squad behind the Dynavolt title sponsor- ship as British as they come. Gordon Ritchie IN THE WIND P44 After more than a decade of trying, Triumph finally scored a win in WorldSSP with Stefano Manzi on board.