level, I think."
He is asking his team for
more testing but he is already
45 points clear in the champion-
ship.
His double Assen triumph
got him to 34 race victories,
which is one more than Troy
Corser's career total. He is now
a stand-alone fourth in terms of
race wins. He took his eighth
and ninth wins at Assen, but
can find no reason why he goes
particularly well there.
In race one, Michael van der
Mark (Honda World Superbike
Team) looked good for a win
but fell with two to go, chasing
Rea. Heartbroken, he would find
solace in race two.
The biggest race one news—
Rea wins being so common
nowadays—was the first-ever
podium for Nicky Hayden in
WorldSBK. He sat in fifth and
then fourth after Tom Sykes
(KRT) had fallen under braking
by missing a backshift. Pushing
but unable to catch the top three
his teammate van der Mark's
fall gave him third, but his riding
had warranted it sometime soon.
Coming up from 10
th
on the grid
it was a top effort.
"Somebody told me my last
podium was five years ago, but I
think it was MotoGP Jerez in the
wet," said Hayden. "I knew it had
been a long time, but I did not
know it had been five years. That
really is a long time.
"It is just a podium, let's be
realistic," he added. "It is not a
win and a few guys crashed, that
helped me, but I crossed the line
on the podium and it does feel
good to—I don't know—get it out
of the way. It is something hope-
fully we can build on."
A brilliant more-than-cameo
appearance by the MV Reparto
Corser lone rider Leon Camier
saw him up from 13
th
on the grid
to fourth. Setting laps like the
leaders for much of the latter
part of the race it was an an-
nouncement of intent.
In fifth Jordi Torres was top
BMW rider for Althea, while the
IodaRacing Aprilia of Lorenzo
Savadori made it six different
bikes in the top six places for the
first time since 2012.
The Sunday 21-lap race was a
flag-to-flag version, with almost
all starting on full wets. On a
rapidly drying track the positions
changed with bewildering pace,
and there were some strange
names up front.
One by one the riders came
in to change from wets to slicks,
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