VOL. 53 ISSUE 43 NOVEMBER 1, 2016 P55
Rea was lucky, as he had run
on in the first Sunday "race" and
had to fight back into contention
via a new grid that saw him start
just behind the leaders.
He made his own luck by
hammering out a new lap record
of 1:56.970 to get close to
Davies.
Nicky Hayden (Honda World
Davies was philosophical, hav-
ing suspected that even though
Rea and Sykes are not friends,
and their internal rivalry is signifi-
cant inside the team, Rea would
(Left) Rea is the first back-to-
back WorldSBK Champion since
Carl Fogarty. (Below) Chaz
Davies finished of the season
with another double.
to slow, pulling wheelies and
dropped into the over-two-
minute-lap mark. Sykes caught
and passed him, grateful for the
help, having been on the rough
end of so many team orders, or
lack of team order situations in
the past. He argued things of
that sort had robbed him of two
world titles and it was difficult to
argue against that thought.
do what was needed to allow
Kawasaki riders to go 1-2 in the
final points table. Rea had an
eventful day two, having won
his title with one race still to
go. Way closer than his 2015
demolition job, in other words.
The second race got off
as scheduled at 9:00 p.m.,
but the red flag came out
when Pedercini Racing Kawa-
saki rider Saeed Al Sulaiti was
forced out with an oil leak and a
dramatically burning bike under
him.
Superbike) was starting from pit
lane, after he had exceeded his
limit of seven engines. Again, the
red flag allowed him to regroup
on a regular grid on the restart,
albeit 15th, and he got up to fifth
at the flag.
"We ran out of engines and
had to use an extra one in race
two," Hayden said. "We knew
we would have to do that yes-
terday, and we did not want to
say but that is what happened to
my pace at the end of the first