Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/409381
VOL. 51 ISSUE 44 NOVEMBER 4, 2014 P37 orders to try to make sure he fin- ished third overall in the points – all Sykes had to do was follow him home in each race and the English rider would be champion two years in succession. It was not to be, in the style of a Shakespearian play at times for Sykes. Guintoli duly won both 17-lap Losail races, and at lap record pace in race two, but Sykes found what he described as a limitation on his machine set-up that did not allow him to compete for the wins. Sheer determination and all his riding skill gave him two third places, but he could not overcome Guintoli's fast and perfectly set-up RSV-4 - or the reborn rider on it. For Guintoli, his first champi- onship was something he always believed he could take, even af- ter Laguna, and particularly af- ter Magny-Cours, his own home race. Losail suits the Aprilia like a black fisted glove, and Guin- toli grabbed his opportunity with both winning hands. "A few laps before the end, because I had a lead, I felt I should slow down because the rhythm was really fast - on the limit," Guintoli said. "So I thought I should ease off for a few laps… but I went faster." Guintoli knew that all he had to do was finish out race two to win the title and he even had time to savor the moment and under- stand what he was about to do. Briefly... pelvis earlier in the year. "I went to the medical center but fortunately I haven't broken anything, although I have a lot of pain in some parts of my body, especially the ribs." Aprilia is planning a Superstock 1000 official entry for 2015, to give the all-new RSV-4 a free hand with two strong riders. With more tech on the machine, Aprilia feels confident it can perform at the top level in stock trim, unlike the previous model, that never really took off as a stock bike at the world level. There was a final late change in the World Supersport entry at Losail, with Qatari rider Nasser Al Malki rid- ing in place of Martin Cardenas in the CIA Insurance Honda team. The Yoshimura Suzuki rider in the AMA Superbike Series had visa problems entering Qatar, despite efforts of the team, Dorna and Federation, and therefore could not ride at the final round of the year as he had planned. Raffaele De Rosa also changed teams for the final race, taking the vacant Team Lorini Honda seat of Marco Bussolotti. With Luca Scassa not fit to ride still and his Magny-Cours substitute Fa- bien Foret now retired, the team Pedercini second bike was given to Qatari Superbike championship regular Alex Cudlin, in parallel with his rides in the local Superbike se- ries at Losail in the World Superbike weekend. He was respectably fast on the first day, and qualified 16th in Superpole 1. The Hero EBR team managed to get Geoff May into Superpole 1 at Lo- sail, after he qualified 20th after the between Lorenzo Zanetti, wild card for DMC Panavto Yamaha and Kev Coghlan from the same Yamaha team. Cluzel's record-breaking push to third came at the expense of Coghlan, and Mahias slipped past the British rider for good measure. Team Go Eleven Kawasaki's Roby Rolfo was top Kawasaki finisher on a curiously bad weekend for the Ninjas at a track seemingly made for them. He won an Italian war with Pata Hon- da's Lorenzo Zanetti three seconds behind the battle for the podium. Sofuoglu was a disappointed eighth after making the wrong tire choice, but put it down to 2014 being an unlucky year with many unexpected problems and one highlight of a race win at Aragon. In the championship fight there was nothing but happiness for van der Mark and Honda as he helped Honda win the manufacturer's championship by a whopping 70 points. World Supersport Champion Michael van der Mark (center) ended the season with a win over Ratthapark Wilairot (left) and Jules Cluzel (right). continued on next page