ROAD RACE
MOTUL FIM SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 7 / JUNE 8-10, 2018
BRNO CIRCUIT/ OSTROVAICE, CZECH REPUBLIC
P66
With all the highly public inci-
dents to replay and argue over, it
was almost easy to miss the fact
that the second race was won by
yet another rider who had never
won a race at this level before:
Alex Lowes on the Pata Yamaha
WorldSBK machine.
In 2018 Lowes has scored
points in every race, and is now
just three points behind Melandri
in the championship. He took
118 WorldSBK races to take his
first win, but he has been bang-
ing on he door of late, and Brno
was the latch that clicked open
for him.
"I think I am the only rider to
finish every race in the points
this year, so it is a step for me
After a contact with Sykes in
the first corner, Rea decided
to pass and get away after two
laps, in what were very hot track
conditions—an unknown until
Sunday.
With most of the top riders
feeling their way into race two's
new conditions, Rea's deci-
sion to go forward ended with
him passing inside Sykes, then
running wide on the exit of the
chicane at the bottom of the hill.
As both riders made for the
corner exit, Rea came inward
and Sykes's line took him out-
ward, with Rea crashing after
they hit hard. Sykes would crash
himself, on lap six, and carry on
riding again, but for no points.
Melandri, with a near-fix to
his machine's rear end wobbles
(that had been dramatic to watch
and experience for many rounds)
after a Brno test a month ago,
saw light at the end of his tunnel
after a disastrous previous round
in the UK.
The disaster this time for him
happened when his rear brake
lever broke—for the third time in
2018, it seems—in race two and
he ran off track. Marco eventual-
ly went 15th in race two, scoring
a point.
An even bigger disaster befell
the KRT squad when their two
riders, Sykes and Rea, battled
in the early laps of the second
race.
Alex Lowes (22) leads
teammate Michael
van der Mark in race
two. He would go on
to record his first-ever
WorldSBK race win.
