Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) won the World Superbike race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in a gripping race-long battle in front of a crowd of 41,175. After passing Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Team) at Turn 5 with two laps to go, the Irishman made the exact same move on Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) on the following lap. Sykes has been leading most of the race.
“It was not an easy race,” Laverty said. “I’d like to thank my team because they made some set-up adjustments to my bike that worked perfectly. I pushed to the limit on the last lap, Davide (Giugliano) and Tom (Sykes) were really strong but I’m happy for the win. It was an unexpected result, but now I’m now second in the standings ahead of two very different rounds. I would like to dedicate this win to my track engineer Marco Bertolatti, who’s just become father.”
Sykes tried everything he could to defend his position under braking, but once he lost the lead, he was passed by both Giugliano and Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet). Giugliano continued on to attempt to earn his first WSBK race win, eventually settling for second, while Melandri defended his position on the podium.
“It was great to win yesterday, and I led for a long time today, but that was the first time we have struggled all weekend,” Sykes explained. “We were six or seven tenths off our best times in the same track conditions and we have to think about why that was. We know what our potential was here again today. We can keep improving and we have a couple of good circuits coming up, so we will move on with confidence. In less than a week’s time we will be in France and doing it all over again.”
Sylvain Guintoli was separated from leading pack, and not in contention for the win at the end. However, he did close to within one second of Sykes at the end. Finishing only one spot behind Sykes allows Guintoli to stay in touch with Sykes in the championship standings.
Frenchman Jules Cluzel (FIXI Crescent Suzuki) and Toni Elias (Red Devils Aprilia) had lonely races, finishing 6th and 7th, respectively. Wildcard rider Roger Lee Hayden (Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki) bounced back from a crash in Race 1 to finish 8th. David Salom (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Michele Fabrizio (Team Pata Honda) rounded out the top 10. Fabrizio said, “Starting from the fifth row was difficult, but after the changes that we made after warm-up this morning, my confidence in the front was much better. I was able to do one-minute, 24-second laps in the race, so I was very happy. I felt much more comfortable on the bike and, although the result is not perfect, I think I could have finished higher with a better starting position. I am happy that we were able to make these steps forward after the problems earlier in the weekend.”
Team Ducati Alstare’s Niccolò Canepa crashed early, but remounted to take the final points-paying position, just behind Wildcard rider Danny Eslick (Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki).
After today’s results, Sykes leads the Eni Superbike FIM World Championship series by 23 points over Laverty, who moved one point ahead of teammate Guintoli. With four races remaining, only Sykes controls his own destiny.
Photography by Ara Ashjian
Results – Race 2 – Laguna Seca – Eni Superbike FIM World Championship
1. Laverty (Aprilia), 36:44.555 (average 95.2388 mph),
2. Giugliano (Aprilia), 0.112 (seconds behind leader)
3. Melandri (BMW), 2.051
4. Sykes (Kawasaki), 2.304
5. Guintoli (Aprilia), 2.959
6. Cluzel (Suzuki), 10.187
7. Elias (Aprilia), 17.789
8. Hayden (Suzuki), 20.602
9. Salom (Kawasaki), 22.055
10. Fabrizio (Honda), 23.472
11. Haslam (Honda), 24.118
12. Young (Suzuki), 29.563
13. Aitchison (Kawasaki), 32.565
14. Eslick (Suzuki), 51.777
15. Canepa (Ducati), 1:05.824
16. Iannuzzo (BMW), 1:23.892
17. Allerton (BMW), 1 lap down
DNF: Badovini (Ducati), Davies (BMW), Sandi (Kawasaki).
Eni Superbike FIM World Championship Standings (Round 12 of 14):
1. Sykes, 361 points
2. Laverty, 338
3. Guintoli, 337
4. Melandri, 319
5. Davies, 259
6. Baz, 180
7. Fabrizio, 177
8. Rea, 176
9. Giugliano, 169
10. Cluzel, 160
11. Camier, 114
12. Badovini, 114
13. Neukirchner, 84
14. Haslam, 83
15. Checa, 80
16. Sandi, 47
17. Elias, 38
18. Aitchison, 29
19. Iannuzzo, 26
20. Clementi, 18
21. Canepa, 12
22. Salom, 12
23. Lundh, 10
24. Hayden, 8
25. Lai, 8
26. Young, 8
27. Reiterberger, 7
28. Allerton, 6
29. Uprak, 5
30. Smrz, 4
31. Stauffer, 4
32. Ercelik, 3
33. Eslick, 2
4. Akiyoshi, 2
35. Haga, 2
Manufacturers Title Standings:
1. Aprilia, 460 points
2. Kawasaki, 415
3. BMW, 390
4. Honda, 225
5. Suzuki, 212
6. Ducati, 152
7. Yamaha, 4
