A battling and front-running win from Kawasaki Racing Team rider Tom Sykes gave him his fifth race victory of the season on the latest model Ninja ZX-10R, in what was a shortened 21-lap Sunday Superbike World Championship race. Championship leader Jonathan Rea (KRT) retired from the race on lap six after experiencing a technical issue, recording his first no-score of the season.
After the first attempt at running the second WorldSBK race of the Laguna weekend was stopped by a red flag incident the shortened restart provided a spectacular contest for the fans. After Rea had dropped back from the lead after running wide, and then retired a short while later, it was a straight fight between 2013 world champion Tom Sykes and two chasing Ducati riders.
Despite constant pressure from behind Sykes kept the lead from lap three onwards to record his fifth win of 2016, and the 31st of his career. He was 0.209 seconds ahead of Davide Giugliano and 0.786 seconds in front of third place rider Chaz Davies.
Sykes has now won as many WorldSBK races as double champion Colin Edwards and is equal sixth in the all-time race winners’ rankings.
Rea, who won the first Laguna race on Saturday from his team-mate Sykes, approaches the long summer break with his championship lead reduced to a still-healthy 46 points. In the Manufacturers’ Standings Kawasaki leads by 95 points, with four rounds to go.
In the Riders’ Championship Rea leads with 368, Sykes has 322 and Davies 260.
The end of the Laguna Seca weekend will lead to the start of the long summer break in the WorldSBK calendar. The German circuit of Lausitzring will host the tenth round of the championship, which will be held between 16th and 18th September.
資料提供 [ Kawasaki Motors Europe N.V. ]