Toprak Dominates Donington Park WorldSBK
P
eople say that the British
always talk about the weather
because it constantly changes.
But at Donington Park this year, it
was more like the weather during
the previous round in Misano than
a typical British drizzly or overcast
summer weekend in July.
It was "scorchio," as the tab-
loid papers like to say in the UK,
for the first two days, and that,
of course, influenced the racing.
But not too much for some, as
even a slightly cooler Sunday did
not stop the progress of the top
riders in the class once again.
This was especially true for
Toprak Razgatlioglu and his
ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK
team. The track temperatures
were not crazy, even in the 90° air
temperatures, but the track was
a little greasy under the sun, and
only 16 riders finished race one,
as, according to Toprak, it was
very easy to crash on Saturday.
The tall Turk had already put his
nose in front of his big champion
-
ship rival Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it
Racing – Ducati) in the Superpole
qualifying session on Saturday
morning, as a BMW and Ducati
factory machine displaced the
official bimota of Alex Lowes (bi
-
mota by Kawasaki Racing Team)
to third place on the grid.
In the opening race, a lap one/
turn one crash saw Alvaro Bautis-
ta, Yari Montella and Sam Lowes
all out at Redgate, thankfully with-
out serious injury to any of them.
Alex Lowes and Razgatlio-
glu fought it out at the front in
the first few laps until Lowes
crashed on the left-hand section
of Craner Curves while simply
pushing too hard. It's seriously
fast down there, and Lowes
would eventually be ruled out (by
his team, despite being declared
fit after the big fall on Saturday).
Bimota scored no points at
all at Donington, even after that
front-row start after Superpole
WIND
IN THE
P52
Toprak Razgatlioglu (1) was at the front of the pack all weekend
at the Donington WorldSBK round.
PHOTOS: GOLD & GOOSE
