Razgatlioglu, Bautista
Dominate Portimao
T
here are few better places in
the racing world to be than
the modernist racing temple of
Portimao in the Portuguese sun-
shine, but the serious injury suf-
fered by WorldSSP300 rider Vic-
tor Steeman (MTM Kawasaki) in
Race One on Saturday brought
everything there is about racing
into a harsh but true perspective,
once again.
With Steeman being airlifted to
hospital, the helicopter was miss-
ing for a long time, so the rest of
the races were delayed.
Before the unfortunate acci-
dent there had been a startling
WorldSBK Superpole, and with
previous record smashed by the
top few, the front row for Race
One read Jonathan Rea (Ka-
wasaki Racing Team), Toprak
Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha) and
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing
Team).
The start was delayed from a
planned 2:00 pm to 3:15 pm and
the race distance was cut to only
14 laps, not the original 21. Some
tech changes or tire choices
were made, but not by Rea, who
stuck with his original rear tire
choice.
Rea did the early front-run-
ning, with Razgatlioglu passing
him on lap six, inside at the fast
turn-one entry.
Once he got a lead that was
the final race result written in
large blue print, but behind the
leader it was the inability of Rea's
bike to use its tires well enough,
or have the engine speed to
fight the Ducati onto and down
the straight, that finally pushed
IN
THE
WIND
P42
Toprak Razgatlioglu heads
Alvaro Bautista. The Turk and
the Spaniard are now the class
of the WorldSBK field in 2022.
