Double to Rea at Imola

Kawasaki Racing, Development & Testing

Double to Rea at Imola

Postby MadKaw » Mon May 11, 2015 11:30 am

WSBK, Imola, ITALY, 10 May 2015
Double Win For Rea As Sykes Takes Two Second Places

Jonathan Rea (KRT) scored two convincing WSB wins at Imola today and in a strong performance from the Kawasaki Racing Team in general his team-mate Tom Sykes was second in each contest. Rea has now won eight of the ten races run so far in 2015.


Rea’s phenomenal Imola performance means he has scored eight wins from ten starts in the FIM Superbike Championship this year, and he now enjoys a huge championship points advantage of 87 points over his nearest challenger.

For Sykes, two second places were his best results of the season putting him up to third in the championship. He is now only 25 points from second place rider Leon Haslam.

The first race was shaping up to be a fight between the top Kawasaki riders until it was stopped at just over half distance. The championship rules demanded a restart, which was only six laps long, but counted for full points. Rea and Sykes once more disputed the lead in this race, with early leader Sykes deposed by Rea on lap three. Rea was to go on to win by 0.482 seconds.

In race two, with marginally warmer track temperatures, again the KRT riders proved the fastest this weekend, with Rea easing away from Sykes in the later stages of the full 19-lap race to make it a double success for himself. With Sykes second again it was a double 1-2 for the KRT squad.

In the championship standings Rea has an almost perfect 240 points, Haslam is second with 153 and Sykes is now third on 128.

The next round takes place at the home round of each rider, Donington Park in the UK, with raceday on May 24th.

Jonathan Rea: “It has been incredible this weekend and I do not know what to say because this kind of run has never happened to me before. I am just enjoying the moment. The key to the weekend was working hard with Pere and Paolo Friday and Saturday to make sure we had a package we could fight with. I was honestly a little bit worried about the six lap first race because we were not really set up to be so strong in the beginning of the race but we were able to win. In race two I watched the gap behind and Arturo was giving me great signals from pitlane. When the gap got to one second I thought ‘keep going and no mistakes’.”

Tom Sykes: “We made some improvements at this round and I am very happy. Jonathan rode a strong race in race two and we had a big gap to the guys behind. In the end I just had to accept that this was our limit today. Jonathan was really strong in some areas and could take an advantage, then I would take some back, but finally it was his day today. The good thing is we have improved from previous events, and from last year, so I think we are heading in the right direction. Still there are some minor things to change but on the whole we have addressed some of our limitations and in Donington at the next round we will keep working. We improved some small things this weekend but small things at this level make an incredible difference. To take the wins would have been better, but I am happy.”

2014 WSB Evo champion David Salom (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) suffered a left radius injury after falling in the red flagged first race and as a result missed race two. Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki) was 11th in the short race one and then a high scoring seventh in race two, moving him to 13th in the championship standings.

-----

Sofuoglu Takes Strong Imola WSS Race Win

Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) secured an emotional race win at Imola, his third straight WSS race victory of 2015, to give him an extended championship lead of 37 points over his fellow Ninja ZX-6R rider PJ Jacobsen (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpress).

Once more in a race Sofuoglu found Jules Cluzel his closest challenger but after taking the lead on lap nine Sofuoglu felt in control, in a race he was particularly keen to win.

Turkish rider Sofuoglu reached an unprecedented total of 30 career WSS race wins today, achieved in 97 races.

Jacobsen was less than two seconds from his own podium finish, but had to settle for fourth. With Kenan on 105 points now, Jacobsen grew his second place total to 68 at Imola.

Front row qualifier Marco Faccani (San Carlo Puccetti Racing Kawasaki) did not quite have the race-long pace to compete for a podium but a fifth place finish at his home round is the best result of his rookie WSS season. He is now tenth in the championship.

Christian Gamarino (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki) earned an 11th place at his home round in Imola, while Aussie wild card rider Aiden Wagner (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) scored two points for 14th. Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) no scored.

Donington Park in the UK will host the sixth round of the series, on 24th May 10th.

Kenan Sofuoglu: “Today the race was not easy. I was not prepared in my conditioning and last week I did not sleep well. On the other side of the story I was strong because I know how difficult it was to come here. For that reason, inside me, I came here for a win. I think this race was very hard because Cluzel was strong, more than I expected, but I told myself if I was here I was here to win. I was not going to accept second, not today. There will be days when I have to but not today. I am happy to have taken 25 points and to I go straight back to Turkey.”

Marco Faccani: “I think this was a good performance for me, because fifth was my best result. I am not so happy because I was third on the grid and wanted to go for a podium. Jacobsen was not so far from me, so maybe I could have made it fourth place but Zanetti was faster to take third place.”
Dave
2010 Z1000
ex bikes
05 ZX-10R Race Bike - No.77
95 ZXR750R M Race Bike - No. 75
98 ZX9R Race Bike - No. 000
zx6r, zx7r, GPX750, GPX500, lots of KX's.
Image
I ride way too fast to worry about cholesterol
User avatar
MadKaw
Administrator
Administrator
 
Posts: 9664
Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:33 pm
Location: Windsor or the Creek..
Bike: ZX10R
State: New South Wales

Re: Double to Rea at Imola

Postby paulsj » Mon May 11, 2015 7:29 pm

Great to see KRT going so well!! Even better to see Jonny Rea killing it after filling that butt head Frenchman baz's spot
User avatar
paulsj
KSRC Member
KSRC Member
 
Posts: 224
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2004 3:37 pm
Location: melbourne
Bike: ZX9R
State: Victoria

Re: Double to Rea at Imola

Postby Gosling1 » Tue May 12, 2015 4:57 pm

great win to Rea, he has never looked so fast....

One thing I like about the 2 green bikes out front - from a distance, the front number board looks like a skull :kuda: :kuda: skulls are cool.

8)
".....shut the gate on this one Maxie......it's the ducks guts !!............."
User avatar
Gosling1
Team Donut
Team Donut
 
Posts: 13823
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 9:30 pm
Location: Anarchy Road
Bike: Z900
State: ACT


Return to Kawasaki Racing, Development & Testing

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests

cron