PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes dominated the second Imola World Superbike race for Kawasaki, with Rea’s eventual comfortable victory giving him eight wins from 10 races so far, and a huge championship lead of 87 points.
Aprilia Racing Red Devils’ Jordi Torres passed a tiring Davide Giugliano on the Aruba.it Racing Ducati for his first World Superbike podium (albeit 26 seconds behind Rea).
Rea took the holeshot and had only Sykes for company as they pushed on. Meanwhile the other man on the Aruba.it Racing Ducati—Chaz Davies got past his teammate Giugliano on lap five to try and get back into contention at the very front.
Rea and Sykes rode in tandem for most of the race with Rea turning the screw on lap 13 with a best lap of the race to go 1.5 seconds clear and build his advantage from there.
Davies had pushed on to what looked to be a lonely third place until his bike gave up and he was black flagged to retire on lap 15 of 19. Teammate Giugliano finished fourth ahead of BMW Motorrad Italia’s Ayrton Badovini.
In a race of attrition Leon Haslam, Leon Camier, Michael van der Mark, Sylvain Guintoli, Randy De Puniet and Christophe Ponsson also failed to finish, with Haslam crashing out mid-race, holding his arm as he walked to the safety barriers.
2015 Imola World Superbike
Race One Results
1. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki)
2. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
3. Jordi Torres (Aprilia)
4. Davide Giugliano (Ducati)
5. Ayrton Badovini (BMW)
6. Matteo Baiocco (Ducati)
7. Roman Ramos (Kawasaki)
8. Leandro Mercado (Ducati)
9. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
10. Alex Lowes (Suzuki)
