French WorldSBK: Toprak Too Good Again
B
MW's Toprak Razgatlioglu
dominated the Magny-Cours
round of the FIM WorldSBK
Series, winning all three featured
races, September 6-7.
As race one got underway, it ap-
peared that with five Ducati riders
inside the top seven places on the
grid, it was going to be another
Bologna benefit, but Razgatlioglu
and his BMW team weren't going
to let that happen and won by a
pummeling 8.597 seconds.
Nicolo Bulega was pushing
on just as hard in second place
but Razgatlioglu had him and
the rest shaded out by a still-fast
BMW, but mainly by his enor
-
mous talent to ride right to the
edge. He became the first rider
to win Magny-Cours races with
three different machines—Kawa-
saki, Yamaha, and BMW.
Third place on Saturday gave
us a surprise podium visitor, as
Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawa-
saki Racing Team) rode the new
KB998 to its second podium of
its rookie season.
As his teammate Axel Bassani
struggled, Lowes flew, despite a
top-speed and corner-exit disad
-
vantage to many of his rivals, so
it was not simply a good track
for the slightly underpowered
bimota.
Alex's brother, Sam Lowes
(ELF Marc VDS Racing Team
Ducati), had beaten him to third
place in Superpole qualifying,
but in the race, Alex seemed to
have the better of even Sam's
strong independent Ducati. Sam
crashed near the end, in a weird,
slow, front-ender.
The opening race was a crash-
fest at turn 13 at the start. Two
separate incidents saw five differ
-
ent riders fall, including Jonathan
Rea (Pata Yamaha), Andrea Ian-
none (GoEleven Ducati), Yari Mon-
tella (Barni Ducati), then Alvaro
Bautista (Aruba.It Ducati) and
Xavi Vierge (Honda HRC). Mon
-
WIND
IN THE
P38
Try as they might, no one could stop
Toprak Razgatlioglu (1) romping to
another triple win.
PHOTOS: GOLD & GOOSE
