Cycle News

WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 51 ISSUE 27 JULY 8, 2014 P105 Rea took a popular win as a result, six seconds ahead of the surprise Ducati duo of Davide Giugliano (a great wet-weather rider) and Chaz Davies (less so, but now confident all round on the recently revamped Ducati). Rea was fortunate in one way, but in these conditions his win was still a top perfor- mance. "By mid-distance the Aprilia guys were catching me so fast, I was a sitting duck and I could do noth- ing about that," said Rea. "I was happy that there was only two behind, but then I could hear the scraping and I knew something had hap- pened. "We cannot get too ex- cited because this was a wet race win and it would be nicer in the dry, but it is a credit to the guys to give me such a good user-friendly bike to use in the wet and I was really confident with the conditions. Wet it is a good leveller for all riders so I was able to make up for our dis- advantages when it is dry." All everybody could talk about immediately after race two was the impulsive nature of Guintoli's crash with Me- landri and the fallout there would be after this incident. It was a memory of the re- cent Kawasaki Racing Team double crash, when Baz's sliding machine took out his teammate Sykes in Sepang. But this fall may well have put a lid on Melandri's title hopes in spite of his recent Briefly... a session as the pain was too much. He was replaced by Riccardo Rus- so, who had ridden in his place at the last round in Misano. Both Pata Honda World Supersport riders, Michael van der Mark and Lorenzo Zanetti, were prepping to leave Portimao and go to Honda tests for the Suzuka 8-Hour, as they have no race in the U.S. next week- end - unlike the full Superbike and Evo riders. The official Honda team in World Superbike and World Supersport is expected to have less financial in- put from Pata next year, with a cor- responding slight reduction in their presence on the machines. Since the main tab is picked up by Honda Europe, this is not expected to be too major a difficulty to overcome. year, his pace has usually been good, but it all came together after qualifying fourth at Portimao. A fighting second in the race and seven seconds ahead of his team- mate, Raffaele De Rosa, Kennedy joined the big leagues this weekend. Last week's new podium rider, PJ Jacobsen was fifth at Portimao and provided the meat in a sandwich by De Rosa on top and Lorenzo Zanetti below on the Pata Honda. Frustrated by what he saw as holding tactics by Florian Marino yet again in the early laps, Zanetti had to fight up to sixth. Kevin Coghlan was another in the second group away and he had to scrap for every meter to get seventh on his DMC Panavto Yamaha, feeling his package needs a little boost to get him back up to the top five and podium places again. Marino was eighth, Rolfo ninth and Mas- simo Roccoli was the best MV Agusta Reparto Corse rider in 10th, after Jules Cluzel hit gearbox issues and had to retire when his engine went wrong after that. This was a significant happening because the possible podium man lost 25 points to van der Mark and that leaves the young Dutch master now 53 points in front of Cluzel. This means that even if van der Mark doesn't finish the next two races, he will still be leading going into the final two races of the year. With no World Supersport race at this weekend's round at Laguna Seca, that means the next race for the 600s is in two months - at Jerez in early September. Michael van der Mark (60) beat Jack Kennedy (4) in the World Supersport race. It was van der Mark's fourth win of the series and he now has a commanding 53-point lead in the championship.

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