ROAD RACE
FIM WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 8 / JULY 7-9, 2017
MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA / MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA
P66
overall the improvements his
team has found since they made
some major chassis and fuel
tank changes are beginning to
pay off.
Having competed for a win at
Misano last time out until a major
tire deflation issue (and a notice-
able lack of those things this
weekend, thankfully) Jordi Torres
(Althea BMW Racing Team) was
seventh in race one, a faller un-
der fast trail braking in race two.
Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha
Official WorldSBK Team) was
also a crasher, but in race one,
wondering where his front-end
feel has gone again.
took two fifth places, at what is
clearly a happy Ducati track.
For the other Italian bikes it
was a case of one-up and one-
down result, with the still out-
gunned but effective Leon Ca-
mier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse)
sixth, easily his best result at
Laguna Seca for MV Agusta.
In race two he was out with
a technical issue, so it was the
turn of another North European
on Italian steel and composites,
Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee
Aprilia), to show his mettle and
take sixth place. He had fallen
at turn three in race one as
his front lost performance, but
I couldn't push and I was hoping
to improve as the race went on
but unfortunately it was the other
way around. It seems that our
base setup is really competitive
but doesn't work as well in hot
conditions, where we struggle
with grip. We need to under-
stand why."
On one of those weekends
when the top guys showed the
way early, race-two fast starter
Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Ducati),
Xavi Fores got his usual fast race-
two start but couldn't hold off the
charging Davies for a podium.
