PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
Kawasaki Racing Team’s Tom Sykes put on his best weekend of the year to record his second win of the day at home in Donington Park, running out 9.772 seconds ahead of his teammate Jonathan Rea. Rea had almost crashed at Coppice early in the race and had to make a calm and assured fight back through most of the top riders to record his 12th straight podium of the year.
Knocking out low 1:28 laps from almost start to finish, Sykes was 3.984 seconds clear of Aprilia Racing Red Devils’ Leon Haslam on lap nine, and built on his advantage all the way to the end of a 23 lap race. He also set a new lap record on lap two, in clean air, with a 1:27.640.
Sykes has now won all the last six World Superbike races at Donington on a weekend that he turned a corner in his overall competitiveness under the new technical rules for 2015.
“I’m very happy it’s been a great weekend,” Sykes said. “I’m really pleased I think we’ve finally turned the corner now and can focus on the rest of the season.”
For Rea, the pair of second-place finishes helped keep his points lead of 101 points over Haslam; 102 over Sykes.
Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano from the Aruba.it Racing Ducati squad passed Haslam in the latter stages to see the second race podium end up a mirror image of the first.
Haslam fought back and retook a popular fourth place, relegating Giugliano to fifth, but being unable to reach Davies.
Voltcom Crescent Suzuki’s Alex Lowes had a safe top six, but the battle between Pata Honda’s Sylvain Guintoli and Haslam’s teammate Jordi Torres went all the way to the wire, with Torres ending up on top, in seventh place.
BMW Motorrad Italia’s Ayrton Badovini got home in ninth and 10th position went to Matteo Baiocco on the Althea Racing Ducati.
A huge crash from Nico Terol came close to stopping the race as the Althea Racing Ducati rider fell at Coppice corner, with his bike only just bouncing off track to safety. Leon Camier crashed from an early top six placing and on his MV Agusta Reparto Corse F4 and had to retire.
2015 Donington World Superbike Race Two Results
1. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
2. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki)
3. Chaz Davies (Ducati)
4. Leon Haslam (Aprilia)
5. Davide Giugliano (Ducati)
6. Alex Lowes (Suzuki)
7. Jordi Torres (Aprilia)
8. Sylvain Guintoli (Honda)
9. Ayrton Badovini (BMW)
10. Matteo Baiocco (Ducati)
