Bautista Seals The Deal in Thailand
O
nce upon a time WorldSBK
racing was a playground
for Ducati. Its early commit-
ment to the series, well over 30
years ago, and initial rules that
were plainly more favorable to
the twins than the four-cylinder
machines, helped them to all
the main WorldSBK statistical
records as a manufacturer.
It's strange, then, to think that
it was 11 years ago, very much
back in the pre-Panigale V-twin
and V4 R era, that Ducati last
won the Riders' Championship,
with Carlos Checa and a sort-of-
privateer Althea Racing Ducati
1098R setup.
Fast forward to 2022 and an-
other Spaniard, at 37, almost as
old as Checa was when he won
his title, has proved the class act
of a championship season that is
not quite over yet.
At Mandalika, Indonesia,
November 11-13. Bautista took
his first WorldSBK title with three
races and one round still to run.
This is not his first World Cham-
pionship, just his first WorldSBK
title. He was 125cc World Cham-
pion in 2006.
Alvaro is a worthy WorldSBK
Champion, for all the usual
reasons. But on track in Indo-
nesia there was a different boss
man, and it was the outgoing
champion Toprak Razgatlioglu
(Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team)
who set a remarkable new best
Superpole time, 1:31.371.
That lap of Toprak's was over
a second faster than Jonathan
Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team).
And he was even more ahead
of Bautista, who was only fifth in
qualifying.
Come the first race of the
weekend and there was an early
intra Pata Yamaha scrap, when
Razgatlioglu and his teammate
IN
THE
WIND
P32
Toprak Razgatlioglu (1)
was top dog in Indonesia
but couldn't stop Bautista
from taking the title.
