Photography by Gold & Goose
Jonathan Rea got a major challenge throughout World Superbike race two at Assen, but he had enough in reserve on his factory Kawasaki to complete the sweep of the race weekend. After a torrid mid-race battle, Rea managed to cross the finish line by 0.439-seconds over Ducati’s Chaz Davies. Michael van der Mark rounded out the podium finishers by nudging out Aprilia’s Leon Haslam to duplicate race one’s podium.
The sweep for Rea pushed his series lead to 50 points ahead of Haslam after four rounds (eight races). It also marked Rea’s 21st-career World Superbike victory.
“I need to savor this moment,” Rea said. “There was a lot of pressure on me coming here with everyone talking about Assen being my circuit and I’m just happy to deliver. We chose a different rear tire in race two and it worked out good. The pace was a little slower at the end because the pace at the start was faster because of Tom out front. I’m super happy. This one’s for all my mechanics that are working tirelessly – all the people at KHI who are working to improve the bike. Hopefully now we can go to Imola and do a similar job to what we did last year. This one feels really, really special.”
Early on it was Tom Sykes leading his Kawasaki teammate Rea with Davies running third. The top three had managed to eke out a small gap over Haslam and Van der Mark. There was a lot of movement of the tires of Sykes and Rea was trying different lines weighing opportunities to take over the lead.
On lap eight van der Mark got by Haslam and set off to catch the leading trio.
Lap 11 was everything World Superbike has come to be known for – amazingly tight racing. Suddenly the leading trio became a quintet and instead of Rea coming to the front it was a very aggressive Davies passing him and Van der Mark also making an attempt with a bold move. But then on the next lap Rea fought back and worked his way, not only back by Davies, but past Sykes too, taking over the lead. Then Davies and Sykes scrapped back and forth, allowing Rea a bit of a gap. Haslam also moved up to join the battle. It was as thrilling as it gets.
It finally settled out giving fans a chance to gain their breath with about four laps to go with Rea controlling the race up front. Davis, Haslam, Van der Mark and Sykes seemed looking to conserve for a closing surge.
The finish was anticlimactic as Rea had enough in reserve again to keep his lead safe at 0.439-seconds over Davies at the checkered flag. The Assen fans were happy with Van der Mark coming home on the podium in third. Van der Mark and Haslam had contact forcing both off the track, Haslam turning his Aprilia into a flat tracker across a gravel trap. Haslam and Sykes rounded out the top five.
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) again led in the early laps before fading to 5th ahead of Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) who fought hard to recover from another average start to 6th.
Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) finished one place higher than he managed in race one, bringing his CBR1000RR SP home in 7th ahead of Xavi Fores (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team), while Alex Lowes had a much better race on his Voltcom Crescent Suzuki finishing 9th. 10th went to Leon Camier who brought his MV Agusta Reparto Corse machine home in another solid top ten position.
The final point scoring finishers in positions 11th to 15th were Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing), Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia), David Salom (Team Pedercini), Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing) and Roman Ramos (Go Eleven Kawasaki).
Nico Terol (Althea Racing) crashed out of contention on lap 4 without injury, while Randy de Puniet retired once again with his Voltcom Crescent Suzuki.
For Davies there were no regrets. He said he and his team did everything they could to be there at the end.
“We managed to keep a little life in the front tire,” Davies explained. “That allowed me to go with Johnny and press him on the last laps. The pace was hot; basically lap-record pace the last two laps and Johnny was super precise and really hard to get around. I think I had a chance with a few laps to go, but I didn’t show my nose at that time. I just felt I was losing quite a bit coming onto the start-finish straight and then I’d play catch up the rest of the lap and get there again and that kind of to and fro kind of thing. In general I’m very happy. It’s by far the best results I’ve had at Assen.”
Van der Mark, perhaps the most aggressive of all the front runners, was all smiles after scoring two podiums in front of his home fans.
“Today has been a great day,” he said. “I want to thank all the fans who came today because there were so many people and to give them two podiums today is amazing.”
The EBR squad continued racing in spite of the announcement this week of the parent company’s bankruptcy. Both EBR machines retired before the finsh.
The series next moves to Imola on May 10.
World Superbike Race 2 Results from Assen, April 19, 2015
1 2 65 J. REA GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 21 1’36.050
2 4 7 C. DAVIES GBR Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team Ducati Panigale R 21 0.439
3 5 60 M. VD MARK NED PATA Honda World Superbike Team Honda CBR1000RR SP 21 2.831
4 3 91 L. HASLAM GBR Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 21 2.992
5 1 66 T. SYKES GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 21 6.508
6 8 81 J. TORRES ESP Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 21 7.092
7 9 1 S. GUINTOLI FRA PATA Honda World Superbike Team Honda CBR1000RR SP 21 11.190
8 7 112 X. FORES ESP Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team Ducati Panigale R 21 15.636
9 6 22 A. LOWES GBR VOLTCOM Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 21 16.402
10 11 2 L. CAMIER GBR MV Agusta Reparto Corse MV Agusta 1000 F4 21 18.505
11 13 15 M. BAIOCCO ITA Althea Racing Ducati Panigale R 21 21.459
12 14 86 A. BADOVINI ITA BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team BMW S1000 RR 21 21.977
13 16 44 D. SALOM ESP Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 21 22.082
14 10 36 L. MERCADO ARG BARNI Racing Team Ducati Panigale R 21 22.928
15 15 40 R. RAMOS ESP Team Go Eleven Kawasaki ZX-10R 21 41.801
16 19 23 C. PONSSON FRA Grillini SBK Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 21 1’06.835
17 21 90 J. ALVIZ ESP Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 20 1 Lap
18 23 75 G. RIZMAYER HUN BMW Team Toth BMW S1000 RR 20 1 Lap
————————————————–Not Classified————————————————–
RET 17 59 N. CANEPA ITA Team Hero EBR EBR 1190 RX 20 1 Lap
RET 24 10 I. TOTH HUN BMW Team Toth BMW S1000 RR 15 6 Laps
RET 20 51 S. BARRAGÁN ESP Grillini SBK Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 11 10 Laps
RET 22 72 L. PEGRAM USA Team Hero EBR EBR 1190 RX 7 14 Laps
RET 18 14 R. DE PUNIET FRA VOLTCOM Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 5 16 Laps
RET 12 18 N. TEROL ESP Althea Racing Ducati Panigale R 3 18 Laps
Points
1. J. REA KAWASAKI 190
2. L. HASLAM APRILIA 140
3. C. DAVIES DUCATI 123
4. T. SYKES KAWASAKI 88
5. J. TORRES APRILIA 83
