VOL. 52 ISSUE 12 MARCH 24, 2015 P23
Voltcom Crescent Suzuki's Alex
Lowes on Rea's teammate Tom
Sykes resulted in the pair making
contact, with Sykes giving way
as he shook his head in dismay.
Lowes' determined efforts
were to be in vain as he crashed
out then restarted. Then Lowes
and World Superbike returnee,
Troy Bayliss, on the Aruba.it
Racing Ducati got penalized with
a drop of one position (Lowes
from sixth to seventh, Bayliss
from eighth to ninth) as they
passed a slowing David Salom
on the Pedercini Kawasaki under
yellow flags that neither of them
saw.
Lowes would make up for his
race one disappointments with
his first podium of the new World
Superbike season, taking third in
race two.
Sykes was to make his first
podium mark of the new (and his
much disliked) technically limited
age of World Superbike in race
one. Some tech issues and lack
of drive in race two kept him in
fifth place, but he left Thailand
third place in the championship
fight.
Haslam's teammate Jordi
Torres was a dark shadow that
Sykes held off in race one, but
Torres was to get the better of
the English rider in race two.
Fifth in race one, Pata Hon-
da's Sylvain Guintoli, was to have
his own teammate—Michael van
der Mark—attack him on the out-
side of the final corner of the fi-
nal lap of race two. Van der Mark
would run wide and off track in
the attempt; as he passed Guin-
toli out of the regulation track
area, he was dropped back to
where he started—seventh.
Ducati top rider Chaz Davies
was a double faller, but got back
to action each time, finishing 11th
and then 15th.
Both Team Hero EBR's Larry
Pegram and Niccolo Canepa re-
tired from race one, with Pegram
just a few laps shy of the finish.
The pair was absent in race two.
In Supersport, Core Motor-
sport Thailand's Ratthapark
Wilairot took the win in front of
the home crowd when long-
time leader, MV Agusta Reparto
Corse's Jules Cluzel's bike
stopped. The crowd urged on
Wilairot who had suddenly been
presented with the lead and won
by 1.8 seconds.
The spectators rose to greet
him like a national hero and he
was plainly emotional after his
win—and Honda's 100th in World
Supersport.
Behind, Kenan Sofuoglu had
caught and passed PJ Jacob-
sen, to take second with the
American ruing the hot weather
that made him think too much
about its potential effects on the
final three laps. In the end, the
podium spot was an improve-
ment for Jacobsen after his
struggles at the previous round
in Australia.
Former AMA Superbike racer
Martin Cardenas finished eighth,
also an improvement from Aus-
tralia.
Gordon Ritchie
(Left) Jonathan Rea (65) put on a
perfect performance at the inaugural
Thai World Superbike.
(Right) (Left to right)Kenan Sofuoglu,
Ratthapark Wilairot and American
PJ Jacobsen topped the World
Supersport podium in Thailand.
