LEADING WORLDSBK LIGHTS
SHINE AGAIN
A
fter a windswept and inter-
esting two-day official Dorna
test at Phillip Island in Australia,
most, but not all, of the familiar
WorldSBK names were stuck at
the top of the timesheets again—
new rev limit rules or not.
But even defending champ
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing
Team) had come unstuck twice
with crashes, one fast highside
on day one and one slow low-
sider on day two.
He still led Marco Melandri
(Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) by
0.128 in the timesheets at the
end as both riders got under the
existing race lap-record pace,
making preparations for the first
races of the year next weekend,
February 24-25.
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing
Team) was lucky to escape his
fast Friday highside crash largely
unhurt but his sore left ankle was
a memory of going end over end
on Monday afternoon.
He went third fastest, and he
also thinks he has good race
pace for Sunday.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Rac-
ing – Ducati) was notable by his
absence in the usual four-piece
red-and-green band. Eleventh,
off the pace and understandably
unhappy about it, was not a great
IN
THE
WIND
P24
