Rea agonisingly close to winning WSBK title

Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea and Ducati's Chaz Davies won a race apiece in round 10 of the 2015 Superbike World Championship at Sepang on August 2, with Davies' thrilling victory in race two denying Rea the chance to become the new champion with three rounds still remaining.

Now, Rea will have to wait until round 11 at Jerez in Spain on September 20 to seal the deal. Rea currently leads by 144pts over Davies, with a maximum of 150pts up for grabs in the final three rounds.

“I’m really happy after a good weekend and happy to go into the summer break healthy and looking forward to Jerez," said Rea. "With three laps to go in race two Arturo my mechanic gave me a bit of a secret signal and I knew if I went then I could catch Chaz. Halfway around the last lap I realised it would be possible.
"I passed Chaz and went through clean. We had contact but I do not blame him for that – I would do the same – but I almost crashed at the same time. I am really happy because we got another first and second on a race weekend and a bagful of points.”

Meanwhile, Max Biaggi became the oldest rider to stand on a WSBK podium at Sepang when he finished third in race one on his factory Aprilia,  but it all turned sour in race two a couple of hours later when he was shunted off at turn one just after the start.

Australia’s Alex Phillis debuted for Team Grillini Kawasaki, finishing 18 and 19tjh in his WSDBK debut.

In race one, Rea prevailed — his 12th win for the year — after long-time leader Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) slipped to fifth at the flag after his tyres fell away completely over the closing stages — but not before he set a new lap record. Davies, Biaggi and world champion Sylvain Guintoli (Honda) finished in positions 2-4.

Davies led the whole way in race two, although Rea made an almighty attempt to wrap up the world title early as they touched on the final corner. Davies got a better jump after the touch, and won by just 0.091 seconds.

Jordi Torres (Aprilia) made the right changes to his RSV4 RF machine between the day’s two races and was third, from Guintoli and Michael van der Mark (Honda).

In world supersport, American PJ Jacobsen (Honda) defeated Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta) by the same margin as Davies over Rea in WSBK race two — 0.091 seconds! Lorenzo Zanetti (MV Agusta) won a close battle with Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki) for third, with Kyle Smith (Honda) in fifth. Aussie Aiden Wagner (Honda) was 14th, and Glenn Scott (Honda) a DNF.

Sofuoglu leads the standings by 13pts over Cluzel.

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