VOL. 50 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2013
the podium.
"I made a hell of a start and
Tom and Sylvain here having
a conversation coming off the
line," Davies said. "To holeshot
like that was the first of the year
and maybe the first ever in World
Superbike. But the rest of them
[laps], I tried to put my head down
and go as fast as I could, but I
started pushing the front everywhere and it was pretty slippery.
I did not feel like I had the same
bike I had earlier in the morning."
Off the start Laverty made the
best go in race two, with Sykes
and Guintoli right behind. Canepa made a great start, but fell
from fourth place on the second
turn of the second lap.
The front five – Laverty, Sykes,
Guintoli, Melandri and Davies were only .8 of a second apart on
Sykes was a hugely popular
winner with the American fans
who showed up at Laguna.
lap two, but Davies pulled in on
lap three with brake issues.
Sykes waited until the final corner of lap four to pass Laverty and
try to do his favorite disappearing
trick. Giugliano slid inside Guintoli, relegating him to fifth on lap
five.
Sykes, in clean air, put in the
fastest lap of the race on lap five,
the first inside the 1:23s. The
best wild card early in the race
was Hayden, in seventh on his
Suzuki.
The man on the move, Giugliano set a new lap record
of 1:23.707 on lap eight of 26,
drawing himself into the shadow
of Laverty.
A block pass on the inside of
the last turn of lap eight put him
second, as he settled in behind
Sykes for a while.
P59
Briefly...
Eugene Laverty looks set to sign
a MotoGP Aprilia contract with the
Aspar team – or nothing, as on day
one at Laguna he confirmed that
there was no firm offer on the table
from anyone. His brother John is his
manager and is frustrated that there
is a tentative offer from Aprilia, but
no contract to sign. Laverty will find
it hard to come to any other ride than
his official Aprilia one, as it is still the
fastest and most nimble bike on the
grid.
The future of MV Agusta in World
Superbike racing seems sealed now
but exactly with whom is still under
discussion. The most likely place for
MV to go is with Genesio Bevilacqua's Althea team - if he can raise
funds enough to do the required
number of tests and development
of the pure race material. The other
possibility is the Yakhnich Motorsport team, which currently runs Sam
Lowes in World Supersport, and is
eager to use the 675cc F3 as well as
the 1000cc F4 in Superbike. Some
sources in Italy suggest Yakhnich is
the only option in reality, but others
are equally sure that Althea will get
their wish.
Carlos Checa is recovering at his
parents' house from recent pelvic
surgery after his big crash at Istanbul. It is now a case of when he can
put weight on his feet to determine
how long his recovery should take.
He spoke of retirement after Istanbul, but depending on how his recovery goes he may be keen to come
back for at least one more year, if he
can get a good winning bike. "Next
week I will maybe be able to remove
some pins and it should all be okay. It
is just that injuries like this take time.
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