Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2013 Guintoli (50) looked to have the pace to win race one, but two red flags cost him leads and he ended up fifth while his rival Sykes (66) rolled on to victory. made it happen. I have a good level of confidence after the double in Istanbul and winning again here. I was not sure if we could be strong and we have had too many DNFs. I have been on the ground more times than in my career. I need to finish these last four races preferably in front of Tom and Sylvain - and Marco [Melandri] is still not out of it - so who knows what these last two rounds could bring." The races were huge contrasts, the first a three part and finally 12-lap sprint, the second a long 26 laps in warm conditions. Guintoli is still in it but was subdued and mystified by why he could not go fast behind other riders, especially as his race weekend started so well. He is 24 points behind with 100 points up for grabs, but he is keen to get to Magny Cours and a home crowd now to lift his spirits. Marco Melandri pushed himself 42 points from the lead this weekend, with poor front-end traction meaning he is probably out of the fight now – he said as much after race two, even though he was on the podium at the time for third. Davide Giugliano made a good play to get a job in 2014 with a strong second place on his Althea Aprilia in the second race. Race one was like sushi. Lots of little bits of it and however tasty and spicy the morsels, it was all still coming along as too small of portions. The first attempted run – 26 laps was the plan - started at 2 p.m. local time and lasted six laps until Danny Eslick's crashing wild card bike punctured the air fence in turn five. Cue a 20-lap restart, but that only lasted eight laps until Niccolo Canepa, then Leon Haslam, then finally Roger Lee Hayden, all crashed. Maybe it was oil or just fronts that were lacking grip P57 Briefly... which like most top-level bikes now is only used when the rider launches from the grid. So as Melandri brakes he pulls on the front brake lever on the right like normal and his 'second clutch' lever on the left, which operates his rear brake. Niccolo Canepa was a revelation at Laguna, riding the Panigale like it was a normal motorcycle and not the dreaded instrument of torture some believe it to be. He rode to fourth in Superpole and was on course for a good first race result until he fell after a bad start in the middle of an eventual three legs. "It has been a good weekend until now and we can still finish it in a good position. If I race all the year on this bike it would be easier. I came here, in a very difficult track, and only the second time I rode a Superbike, so it is not so easy. Anyway we have done a very good job and the track itself is a little bit better for us here. There are no long straights. On the other circuits the difference in power between the four cylinders and us is really big sometimes." As he recovers from his broken femur at home Jonathan Rea became a dad recently, to little Jake Elijah. His wife Tatia (nee Weston) is a native of Phillip Island in Australia and both mother and baby are doing well. The BMW Gold Bet team had a whole new look in their graphics at Laguna Seca, with gambling advertising being banned and GoldBet being an online gambling operation. Everything looked the same on the BMW S1000RRs, except where GoldBet used to have its logos there was the name 'Melandri' or 'Davies.' continued on next page

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