Cycle News

WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 51 ISSUE 21 MAY 28, 2014 P69 so. Winning the world title will al- ways be the most emotional race win but in terms of performance today… maybe the top of the list now. We had a problem on the first laps and Loris [Baz] came over quite aggressively in turn one. I am not complaining, but this took away my natural line and I got put onto the marbles. After the first half lap, when I was at full lean angle, the bike was cutting the power, which is very strange. I almost came into the pits after coming onto the back straight. I thought that my race was fin- ished, but the Ninja had a little bit of a cough and cleared its chest and luckily after that the bike was working very well." Well enough to pass people with ease, sometimes two at a time, as he did to Sylvain Guin- toli and Jonathan Rea in race one and then Baz and Guintoli in race two. Baz was aware that he had tried very hard to win his first race of 2014, even against his teammate, and although Sykes disagreed, Baz felt it was not too over the top. "I tried my best to pass Tom back where I could, but I almost lost the front," said Baz. "It was clean, but I just lost the front when I passed Tom. We are rac- ing and on the limit so you cannot make a full clean move, you have to make some risk when you do it. In race two it was almost the same as race one in that Tom was just too fast in the second section of the race. We can have a big smile on our faces." Third in race one was another local British star, reigning British Superbike Champion Alex Lowes Briefly... leading things off on track and then the fans getting the chance to meet the current stars of World Superbike racing in the Paddock Show. And an auction raised more funds for bike racing's favorite charity. The final work at the Phakisa race- track is about to be inspected by the FIM in June to see if the South Afri- can race can go as planned. Primary safety run off areas, resurfacing and other changes are needed. The fi- nal round in Qatar is still good to go but has not yet been announced for political reasons. If the race goes ahead it will be held at night, under the now famous Qatar floodlights. The teams in World Superbike have been advised to bring the bigger of their two possible brake rotor sizes Van Der Mark passed Coghlan and then Cluzel and it was a man- to- man fight for the win. Cluzel tried too hard and van Der Mark was left with an opportu- nity he did not pass up. He won by .114 of a second from the MV rider, with home-boy Brit Coghlan in third for his second podium of 2014. Cluzel was stoked with second, despite his desperate efforts to win. "This race was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it because I feel that I can fight for the victory and I had a good bike," he said. "Step by step we are trying to understand the bike and we are getting stronger and maybe the next one will be even better." Sofuoglu ended up fourth and fuming at his bad luck again. Had he known what it was that caused him so much mid-race grief, he would have carried on and probably won. "I was ahead by one second and everything was going good. Then I realized there was a problem. I was not sure what it was, but I had to look down to see and had to slow down. I could smell something and felt the bike was being held back. I had to continue to get some points and after about three laps it cleared and I could push again." As it stands, Van Der Mark was the big winner as he is now 14 points ahead of fifth placed Florian Marino. Cluzel is third with 62 points with Coghlan fourth on 60. Four types of machine covered by 30 points. Zanetti remains on 49 points, in fifth place. Michael van Der Mark (60) won his second World Supersport race of the season after a close battle with Jules Cluzel (16). continued on next page

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