Toprak Triples Up For New WorldSBK Record
I
n a super-heated weekend of
WorldSBK action at Portimao
in Portugal, Toprak Razgatlioglu
(ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK
Team) got his wish of a record-
breaking set of successive race
wins, although he had to wait for
the Superpole race to become
the first rider to win 12 races in
succession in this class. And
then again for the final race of
the weird weekend to move the
record on from 12 to 13 (he has
won 15 races in this season).
He was again fundamen
-
tally untouchable by any of his
peers, even though in race two
he accidentally hit Alex Lowes
(Kawasaki Racing Team) on the
main straight and lost one of his
BMW's large winglets.
He had earlier celebrated his
first race win by literally strap
-
ping a set of cardboard airplane
wings to his shoulders on the
slowdown lap.
It was his weekend again,
and he had post-race gimmicks
aplenty—again.
In Superpole qualifying it was
a great surprise to many that he
only went just over a tenth faster
than second-place qualifier Alex
Lowes, but in fairness it had
been a remarkably close week
-
end on the timesheets.
No fewer than 15 riders quali-
fied within one second of each
other for the race-one grid spots.
WorldSBK's very own modern-
day recovery Superman, Danilo
Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing
Ducati), was third quickest in Su
-
perpole and would go on to earn
a remarkable podium for himself
in race one.
From the start of the first day of
racing—at the bizarrely late sched-
uled time of 6 p.m. local time—the
name out front was Lowes, who
led the first four laps. Then Petruc-
ci took over in the hot conditions
and led for the next eight.
His hopes of a race win with-
ered in the final few laps, as even-
tual race winner Razgatlioglu piled
on the pressure heavily enough
to take a small but realistically
unchallenged advantage of one
second at the flag after 20 laps.
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Rac
-
ing – Ducati) was a lowly 12th on
lap one, but declaring himself "90
percent" happy with the feel and
fun factor of riding his Panigale
V4 R again, he came through the
WIND
IN THE
P38
Try as they might, no one could stop Toprak Razgatlioglu
(54) from notching a new WorldSBK win record.
