VOL. 54 ISSUE 21 MAY 31, 2017 P37
body but Sykes and Haslam.
Marco Melandri had one hand
on the third-place trophy until he
ran wide exiting the Melbourne
hairpin. He ran inches onto the
grass but he had to slow, of
course, and Lowes passed by
inside, holding him off across
the line.
With all the first race fallers
and track escapees thankfully
ready for race two, an even more
untidy and crash-strewn 23-lap
contest ensued on Sunday.
Rea, down on the fourth row
in 10th place after his Saturday
no score, under the new grid
rules, made a storming start,
avoiding the first corner bottle-
neck that held back some oth-
ers. He was up to the lead after
only just over a lap, demoting
Tati Mercado's Ioda Aprilia.
Haslam's heroics could not
be repeated in race two as he
had been gently but terminally
tipped-off by Mercado, as the
over-busy first few laps (under
the new grid rules) saw the
faster rider coming through on
the slower leading ones—except
for the disappearing Rea.
Davies had also been run off-
track in this incident, and Sykes
slowed up for the second time in
one lap, so Rea had made what
was to be his final escape and
he would be the man to—proba-
bly inevitably—end Sykes' unreal
winning record, holding him on
nine in a row in the UK.
Davies, salvaging Ducati's
entire weekend, was to work his
way to third in a similar fashion to
Lowes on Saturday. He passed
van der Mark late on and stayed
third.
With better luck he would
have converted leading pace
into at least being in the same
ballpark as the Kawasakis,
but his luck was, once again,
washed away in a front-end fall in
race one.
His teammate Melandri was
in worse condition as his bike's
back end, lifting and pumping
as he changed gears each time,
finally snatched at the chain
so often it ripped the gearbox
sprocket off. It was caught on
camera, bouncing down the
trackside. His drive chain could
be seen dragging below the bike
as he pulled off the track, highly
perplexed at first.
The top 10 adventurers were
many and varied in a second
race where only 14 riders fin-
ished.
Sykes, with a win and a
second, closed in by 20 points
to Rea, and is now 55 points be-
hind. Davies is 20 points further
back.
Sykes summed up the rac-
ing side of the weekend best,
for himself at least, saying "We
made pole position, a race win
and a second and closed 20
points on the championship
lead. When one world cham-
pion is fighting another world
champion, to close 20 points in
one event, you have to be very
happy."
The next round is Misano,
where either of the top Kawasaki
runners can go well, and where
many riders are heading straight
after Donington to test.
WorldSSP
Three times this year, Kenan So-
fuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Rac-
ing) has been unable to score,
