Rea Doubles Up After Another WorldSBK Thriller
Race 2 | Sunday
After another drama-laden WorldSBK contest at Phillip Island Jonathan Rea (KRT) secured his second win in two days to leave Australia with a perfect 50 points haul.
The result was in doubt until the last lap, when Chaz Davies pushed too hard attempting to pass Rea into the Honda corner, and he fell from his Aruba.it Racing Ducati at the apex. Davies re-entered but dropped back to finish tenth.
Jonathan Rea
Michael van der Mark (Honda World Superbike) scored a remarkable second place in a weekend where he showed maturity and speed in both races and qualifying.
VD Mark #60
After Davies’ fall, Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider Davide Giugliano timed his last lap pass on Nicky Hayden (Honda WSBK) at the MG hairpin perfectly and held him off over the line to score his first podium of 2016, in third place.
The new Pata Yamaha team and the new WSBK Spec R1 took a fifth place, just 2.439 seconds form the win for Sylvain Guintoli, with early leader Tom Sykes (KRT) dropping back in two steps to go sixth.
A three rider BWM fight determined the places from seventh to ninth, with Jordi Torres and his Althea team-mate Markus Reiterberger going seventh and eighth – local rider Josh Brookes just behind on his Milwaukee BMW.
The top ten was completed by the restarting Davies.
In the championship Rea has a perfect 50 points. Van der Mark has 36 and Giugliano 29.
Rea Wins Epic Season Opener
Race 1 | Saturday
The first Saturday race of the new year in the latest era of World SBK competition saw a dry track welcome the riders, and up to nine front men provide a remarkable spectacle for the Saturday crowd for most of the 22-lap race distance.
On the final lap a group of four, with Jonathan Rea (KRT) at the head, entered the final section. Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) tried to pass inside at the downhill of the MG hairpin, but he ran wide and Rea came around the outside and held off Davies over the line by 0.063 seconds.
In third place Michael van der Mark (Honda WSB) scored the final podium place, but the combative nature of the race saw him only 0.487 seconds from the win.
Such was the pace shown by the front-runner Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Ducati) that he scored the best lap of the race a 1’32.445 – on the last of 22 laps. He was only 0.647 seconds from the winner.
Early leader Tom Sykes (KRT) was finally fifth, with Pata Yamaha rider Sylvain Guintoli sixth, and just behind Sykes at the very end.
Rea & Sykes
Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) was setting front runner laps from halfway on and passed many riders to go seventh, just over ten seconds from the win.
Still-hurting Jordi Torres (Althea BMW) gritted his teeth for eighth but early to group runner Nicky Hayden (Honda WSB) slid back to ninth, swamped nears the end.
Aussie rider Josh Brookes (Milwaukee BMW) scored a top ten in his return to WSBK action from BSB.
Josh Brookes
Early front runner Lorenzo Savadori (Ioda Racing Aprilia) placed 12th.
The next race will be at 3pm local time on Sunday 28th February
In World Supersport | Sofuoglu The History Man At PI
A little bit of history was made in the 15-minute Superpole 1 and 2 sessions at Phillip Island in the WSS class, as the riders took part in the first ever ‘WSBK style’ WSS final qualifying.
The riders from 11th to the final one in 27th after normal qualifying took part in WSS Superpole 1, and then the top 10 from regular qualifying and the best two from Superpole 1 competed for the final grid positions on the first four rows.
The history man was – appropriately enough – Kenan Sofuoglu, after Superpole 2 as he scored a fast 1’33.142 with his very last lap, to lead the grid.
He was also the first rider to score pole under the new tech rules in the class, with less powerful engines and much less in the way of electronic aids on board.
Kenan Sofuoglu
“I feel zero difference under the new rules,” said Sofuoglu. “Honestly, I am a person who does not like electronics, and that is one of the reasons I would hate to go Superbike, because you need to use a lot of electronics there. Supersport is still the old style and I like it very much. Standard, ride it by yourself and the throttle is in my hand. I like it.”
Second fastest in Superpole was American rider PJ Jacobsen (Honda WSBK Team) just over half a second off Sofuoglu’s best.
On his first race weekend in the WSS scene Randy Krummenacher (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) scored a front row start in third place, being held up with traffic on his final lap.
Fourth was former Stock 600 rider Federico Caricasulo (Bardahl Evans Bros. Honda) from two MV Agusta riders, the official Reparto Corse rider Lorenzo Zanetti and Race Department RK25 rider Alex Baldolini.
Christian Gamarino, Superpole 2 faller Jules Cluzel, young British gun Kyle Ryde and Qatar race winner in 2015, Kyle Smith completed the top ten.
WSBK Superpole | Sykes Takes First 2016 Superpole Honours
After Superpole’s two sessions Tom Sykes took his 31st career pole position. It was the first Superpole win, at the first attempt, for the all-New Ninja ZX-10R, and came at record pace.
Sykes, who came so close to a 1’29 lap with his 1’30.020 said, “The bike was really good in Superpole. It would have been nice to get into the 1’29s but overall we took pole position and now it’s time for race one. Now I can get stuck in and make this one count today.”
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – WorldSBK) was second fastest, also close to the 1’29s, while a tight top three was completed by the second KRT Kawasaki – of 2015 World Champion Jonathan Rea.
The great season start for the official Pata Yamaha team continued with pre-Superpole fastest man Sylvain Guintoli fourth and Superpole 1 qualifier Alex Lowes fifth, just over 0.3 seconds from Sykes’ new track best.
VD Mark, Rea, Giugliano
In another pairing for another manufacturer Honda World Superbike team riders Michael van der Mark and Nicky Hayden were sixth and seventh, albeit with Hayden on the third row for the two 22-lap races, and VDM on row two.
A strong 2016 entry for the Aprilia-equipped IodaRacing Team continued with current FIM Superstock 1000 FIM Cup champion Lorenzo Savadori eighth – and ahead of factory Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider Chaz Davies in ninth.
The top ten was rounded out by the MV Agusta F4 of Leon Camier.
The top BMW belonged to Markus Reiterberger in 11th, with his Spanish team-mate Jordi Torres (Althea Racing BMW) 12th.
WSBK rookies Milwaukee SMR BMW put Josh Brookes 14th and Karel Abraham 16th after Superpole.
