VOL. 52 ISSUE 23 JUNE 9, 2015 P37
vies on the Aruba.it Ducati by an
eventually comfortable four sec-
onds. Angered by his bad luck
and feeling he could have stayed
with Rea, Sykes was ready to
give it more in race two.
It looked like he and Rea
would be dancing partners in
their seemingly endless rivalry—a
fight made all the more intense
by Sykes' double win at Don-
ington—but again Sykes had a
bizarre gremlin: a damaged rear
wheel rim allowing air out of his
rear tire.
In the dry race two this dropped
him from podium to eighth.
And even with Aprilia Rac-
ing Red Devils' Leon Haslam
on the podium in third (after his
race one disappointment in the
wet), Sykes still moved ahead of
Haslam to second in the cham-
pionship.
A disaster of sorts for Sykes,
who eventually laughed off not just
half a bad day at the office, but a
full double dose of bad luck.
"I am putting a brave face
on it because it has not been a
great day for us," said Sykes. "It
was such a shame that we had
a small technical issue in race
one and then a flat rear tire in
race two. In race one the revs
dropped for a while and then it
cleared again."
His teammate may well have
won both races on merit in any
case, but Sykes was left won-
dering "what if" and given his
pre-race pace, he had every
right to.
For Rea, an eventually clear
win in race two came after he
exercised patience and pushed
in the right alchemic ratios that
saw him take his fourth double
of the year, to add to four sec-
ond places to make him only 20
points less than perfect still.
Davies teammate Davide
Giugliano had a strong start to
both races and finished out race
two with a second place inher-
ited from Sykes misfortunes. The
Superpole winner—and the top
non-British rider in the champi-
onship—was fourth in race one,
After falling in the wet in race
one and restarting for 12th place,
Haslam struck bronze in race
two, with a gritty ride against the
physical track and the pain of
a freshly re-cracked rib, which
were only partially healed pre-
Portimao.
Davies was fourth in race
two, while Pata Honda's Sylvain
Guintoli and teammate Michael
van der Mark were rejuvenated
in Portimao. Guintoli was fifth in
the flag-to-flag first race, then
just behind Van der Mark in race
two for sixth place, in a race
held entirely in the dry.
At the top of the World Super-
bike shop, Rea's astounding run
of form puts him at 330 points,
and Sykes his closest chaser at
206. That is a difference of 124
points, which means almost five
races worth of full points scores.
Even Rea started speaking
about the championship itself
after his latest magical day of
racing, but ominously for his
peers. He sees the best form
of defense as attack, so expect
more wins or seconds from him
at the next round in Misano on
June 21. "The points gap is a lot
after this round, but I will try to
not change the way I am riding,"
said Rea.
Gordon Ritchie
Rea extended his points lead to
124—five races worth of full-points
scores with six rounds remaining
in the championship.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
