Castletown resident wins at Donington
CASTLETOWN resident Jonathan Rea took his second win of the World Superbike season after an incident-strewn second race at Donington on Sunday.
On the first corner Carlos Checa and Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) touched and Checa went down, taking out Jakub Smrz (Liberty Racing Team Effenbert Ducati) and Checa’s team-mate Davide Giugliano.
Then Laverty himself crashed heading down Craner Curves as eventual third-place man Tom Sykes led for most of race distance.
He was finally overhauled by a warring faction which included eventual second place man Max Biaggi plus Leon Haslam and Marco Melandri. After a multitude of overtakes and riders running off track on occasion, Haslam looked to have it won until both he and Melandri ran wide as the Italian attempted a pass into the very last corner and Rea pushed inside as a gap opened up. He and Haslam collided and Haslam fell, knocking off Melandri with his stricken bike as he slid across the track. Rea held on to win by just over half a second from Biaggi, with Sykes two second back in third place. Leon Camier (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) was an impressive fourth.
After the race Rea said: ‘In the last corner there were five guys out there wanting to win a race, most of all Melandri came from a long way back on Leon to create a gap that I went for, me and Leon touched and I’m really sorry that he crashed. But more importantly we’ve won, taken 25 points and I’ve given my team a great reward for giving me a great bike this weekend.’
The Honda World Superbike rider finished the day’s earlier race in fourth, meaning he moves up to third overall in the championship standings behind Biaggi and Sykes. The championship’s next round takes place in America at the Miller Motorsports Park on May 28.