WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 51 ISSUE 21 MAY 28, 2014 P71
who pushed hard early on, led
for two laps then ended up just
not quite able to get into the war
of the green men on his Voltcom
Crescent Suzuki. He ended up
six seconds back as the Kawasa-
kis powered their way to the top.
This was his first dry weather
podium after his Assen wet-
weather second place. "I strug-
gled a bit at the end, but the start
and leading my first World Su-
perbike race was great," Lowes
said. "We'll move on with the
confidence gained this weekend
as we have proved we can run at
the front. My starts were better
and I mixed-it-in with the top boys
so I'm looking forward to the rest
of the year."
He was well clear of Aprilia's
Marco Melandri in a race in
which Guintoli dropped back like
a stone to finish seventh after
having led for two laps.
It was more good news for
Sykes as all his recent main
championship rivals struggled.
The news of race two was more
predictably Sykes-like, as he hit
the front on lap 11 and led for the
next 13, ending up 3.6 seconds
ahead of Baz and a whopping 7.6
seconds ahead of Guintoli.
Pata Honda's Rea lost his
championship lead with a pair
of sixth places – a far cry from
his two wins at Imola and one at
Assen in the wet in the previous
Briefly...
to the Sepang round by Brembo as
the braking stresses there – allied
to the intense Malaysian tempera-
tures – rival circuits like Monza and
Aragon. The bigger brake discs of-
fer much more in the way of stopping
power as they have a greater contact
surface and mechanical advantage,
which produces more grip on the
brake's surface.
Legend Carl Fogarty was on site
on Saturday at Donington, handing
out Superpole prizes to the top three
and making appearances at the Pad-
dock Show alongside the current
stars. He rode a Panigale on track on
Sunday to celebrate 20 years of his
first World Superbike Championship
win with the British fans.
continued on next page
Baz (76) leads a crashing Davide
Guigliano (34), the Italian having
started from pole in race one after
winning a wet Superpole session on
Saturday.
