Chaz Davies has won the opening race of the day at Laguna Seca after a lights to flag display saw the British rider take the win by 1.798s.
After several days of blazing California sun, raceday at Laguna Seca for the GEICO US round, the 9th of the 2015 eni FIM Superbike World Championship season dawned with thunder and rain greeting the WorldSBK riders.
A wet warm up saw the riders take to the track for the first time with Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) fastest in the tricky conditions but thankfully by the time race 1 was scheduled to start the sun was shining and the track had dried.
Davies made the perfect start, taking the hole shot before opening up a 1.6s lead at the end of lap 5. Despite the Kawasaki pairing of Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea giving chase they were unable to reel in the Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider who romped to the victory, his 6th WorldSBK win and the 2nd for the Panigale machine.
At the flag and after a tense, race long duel 2nd and 3rd went to Sykes and Rea, the pair pushing each other to limit throughout.
Davide Giugiano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) finished a lonely 4th after regrouping from a poor start, the Italian who started on the front row eventually getting the better of Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) who rode a solid race to 5th.
Once again leading from the start Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) tried to make but unlike race 1 he was closely followed in the early stages by the Kawasaki Racing Team pairing of Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea with Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) running strongly in 4th.
Behind Davies by 1.406s at the flag was Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea, the podium in race 2 being a carbon copy of the first encounter.
Aprilia Racing riders Jordi Torres and Leon Haslam were 4th and 5th respectively after a 25 lap duel. They finished comfortably ahead of Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) who had a lonely ride to 6th after failing to finish race 1.
Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) got the better of Niccolo Canepa (Althea Racing) in their personal on track fight for 7th with Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing) once again 9th ahead of Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse).
The remaining point scorers were Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven), Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing), Gianluca Vizziello (Grillini Racing) and Christophe Ponsson (Team Pedercini).
Drops of rain began to fall at the start of lap 2 claiming Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) and reigning champion Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team), the pair crashing out with Giugliano taken to the medical centre for checks. Guintoli made it back to the garage.
The next round of the eni FIM Superbike World takes place in Sepang, Malaysia in two weeks.
Source: supersport
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