BY GORDON RITCHIE
PHOTOGRAPHY GOLD & GOOSE
I
t is not often a rider turns 40 in World
Superbike, in terms of wins at least.
In taking both Phillip Island wins, by
narrow margins each time, Jonathan
Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) finally left
with his 40th career race victory, as he
joins some illustrious company. Only Carl
Fogarty, Troy Bayliss and Noriyuki Haga
have smashed through that glass ceiling
before.
Superpole winner, double-race win-
ner… it sounds like smooth sailing for
Rea, especially as he has now won five of
the last six Phillip Island races—at what is
more or less his home track thanks to his
wife, Tatia, being a native of these parts.
Tell the enthralled fans and TV specta-
tors that Rea had it easy and they would
justifiably not believe you, after two wild
and pugilistic races.
Rea held off Chaz Davies (Aruba.
it Ducati WorldSBK) by only 0.042 and
0.025 seconds in each race, as Davies
just could not get out of the slipstream at
the right point to score the wins instead
of Rea.
Rea also did not have it easy, like race-
one-podium men Davies and third-placed
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team),
who all had to drop back to the third row
(and Rea and Sykes changed places
even once they got there) under the new
WorldSBK rules. Designed to shake
things up, the rules shook up some and
not others at the first go.
After race one they needed no shaking
up at all anyway, as the top riders rode
at what Rea called "supersport pace" for
a lot of laps. The result was 14 riders in
one leading group for a while and then
only time and tire wear splitting things up
VOL. 54 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 28, 2017 P65
WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
IN THE AUSTRALIAN SUNSHINE.
TURNS
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