VOL. 53 ISSUE 27 JULY 12, 2016 P63
For Rea it was a weekend of
two very different outcomes,
neither perfect, even if his
points scores in race one were
a maximum. He even said that
although winning his first race at
Laguna was special, the manner
of it was less so. Even on a day
when an American presence on
the podium was a shared joyful
experience.
"Definitely not special today
because to win the race, I made
so many mistakes," he explained
after race one. "It wasn't a beau-
tiful race. It's nice to win here,
especially in front of the Ameri-
can fans because racing here
is quite special. I'm sure Nicky's
really proud because he got a
really nice reception right there,
a lot of fans here. Even as other
riders, we absorb that and feel
that as well and it's nice."
In the second race, luck
and Rea's 100 percent podium
record ended up in a run off
track, a noise from his bike and
a retirement rather than risk an
even worse fate.
"It's just disappointing when
we had the pace," said Rea. "I'm
feeling really good on the bike
right now so I feel like it was one
more race that we could have
really capitalized on, but unfortu-
nately it didn't go that way. This is
racing. We have to take the rough
with the smooth because we've
had a really good run so far."
Sykes was on form again—Mr.
Superpole for the 37th time,
and second in race one by only
0.819 of a second.
Nicky Hayden's
World Superbike
homecoming
was a good one
with a podium in
race one.
