mate and then win his third race
in a row.
"Tom rode incredible, such
a fast pace, and I was…never
over my limit to stay there, but
I was a little bit uncomfortable
because we were pulling away
from the third-place guys. I was
just happy to stay there. There
came a point in the race where I
said, 'okay, this pace is fast, but
where am I going to pass?' I did
not have too many places up my
sleeve. But I made a nice block-
pass in T12 and it worked."
No sign of fade from Sykes
on days one or two at Buriram
as he avenged himself and won
by 0.190 seconds ahead of Rea
on Sunday—the big passes and
occasional lunges tried by Rea
meeting big blocks and some
swerves adopted by Sykes.
His Thai bike package was
good enough for his first podium
in second on Saturday and then
that Sunday win, a precious
thing when it looked like a Rea
double was on again.
"It makes it pleasing for me
because we were a long way
from a win last year and Jona-
than is super, super fast here,"
said Sykes. "So to fight him in
a proper fight, probably the first
real fight we have had since we
were riding together for Kawasa-
ki Racing, I think it was a plea-
sure for the fans and a pleasure
for the riders."
We are not so sure Rea will
agree.
The only other rider to float
into the orbit of Rea and Sykes
was race-one sinker Chaz Da-
vies (Aruba.it Racing Ducati).
The Ducati rider found a mys-
tery tire issue in race one, and
also what transpired to be a slow
engine. This combination held
him back in fourth—18 seconds
down. In other words, an age,
after over 20 laps, for a rider of
this class.
In nothing less than despair
on Saturday night, his team gave
him a new engine, he chose
the same tire option as race
one, and he finished just too far
behind Rea to challenge for sec-
ond going into the final corner of
race two.
The strong podium showings
of Michael van der Mark in the
Phillip Island race were no fluke,
VOL. 53 ISSUE 10 MARCH 15, 2016 P27
Rea (left) was
content with
second in
race two but
thought some
maneuvers
from his
teammate
were a bit
much.
