Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/875372
IN THE WIND P36 GIVE AND TAKE FOR CHAMPION ELECT REA I t is a game of give and take right now, as Jonathan Rea (Kawa- saki Racing Team) is taking all he needs and his rivals seem intent on giving him bucket loads of points. Such was the case at the Prosecco DOC Portuguese round of the FIM WorldSBK Championship, September 16-17. Rea scored a peerless double victory after a remarkable Super- pole Saturday win. He even had electronics problems in second gear to contend with in race two on Sunday, as he romped away nearly six seconds ahead of his fellow competitors. It had been over six seconds of a gap in race one. He won Superpole number 12 of his career, was fastest in just about every session, and took out a two-second lead in one lap in race one. Two seconds. Nobody takes out two seconds from a standing start, even from pole. But Rea did. Rea now has 49 race victo- ries—third best total overall—when you add his 15 Honda victories to his recent Kawasaki ones. He is only three behind Troy Bayliss' 52 and 10 behind Carl Fogarty's 59. But the biggest number of all— looming over the immediate event horizon in France in two week's time—is the almost certainty of Rea's third consecutive champi- onship crown. Rea has not yet won the cham- pionship of course, but even he is thinking about it coming to him as early as France, September 29-October 1. With Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) scoring no Por- tuguese points after suffering serious left hand and wrist breaks and dislocations, and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) scoring 20 in second place on Saturday then none at all on Sunday (after his latest front-end fold near the end of a race) Rea scored a perfect 50 for two wins. He is now 120 points ahead of Sykes, and 135 ahead of Da- vies, with only 150 points up for grabs by any rider who wins all six remaining races. Thirty points at Magny Cours (France) and the title will be decided with two complete rounds to go, no matter what anybody else does. This being 2017, and these be- ing the days of the reverse race- two grid for the race-one podium riders, Rea's race wins were very different but equally unstoppable. Rea ran clear in race one but had to fight through in race two, even if he did take the lead on lap two from ninth on the grid. Davies was next-best rider behind Rea in race one, but he had to battle his way through from a real qualifying position of ninth after a Superpole front-end crash, which was to be repeated as he was cruising home to a seemingly sure second in race two. Sykes was helpless in his at- tempted defense of second place overall after his FP3 crash, and ensuing huge bike fire, as his fuel tank was hit so hard it split open. Despite two fire extinguishers be- ing used it took some time for the blaze to get under control. Sykes endured an operation on Sun- day morning and then endured watching his teammate snuff out his already slim championship chances on Sunday with Rea's second race win. Sykes had a plate put in his left little finger, and other fractures to his ring