Rea and Sykes win at Laguna
…but a race two DNF for Rea now has Sykes with 46pts with four rounds remainingKawasaki factory pairing Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes shared wins in round nine of the 2016 Superbike World Championship at the famous Laguna Seca circuit in California on July 9-10.
However, the big news was that Rea failed to finish race two after he first ran off the track and then retired with a technical problem, with Sykes reducing the gap between the pair to 46pts with four rounds remaining.
In race one, Rea took his first ever victory at Laguna Seca, beating Sykes and Nicky Hayden (Honda) as last year's double winner Chad Davies (Ducati) crashed out of contention.
In race two, Sykes held off Ducati teammates Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies in a tight battle, the trio left to fight it out after Rea's demise.
Queenslander Anthony West (Kawasaki) finished with 12-9 results, while Bringelly's Josh Brookes (BMW) was 13th in race one before crashing and then retiring from race two.
Rea leads on 368pts from Sykes (322), Davies (260), Giugliano (185), Michael van der Mark (Honda, 185) and Hayden (173). Brookes (55pts) is in 15th and West (50pts) 17th.
WorldSBK now heads into the summer break before reconvening at Lausitzring in Germany from September 16-18.
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