By Michael GougisC
haz Davies fi nally cracked the code for
his Aruba.it Racing—Ducati Panigale V4
R, racing at the front all weekend long
for the fi rst time this season and taking his
fi rst Superbike World Championship win of
2019 in the fi nal race at WeatherTech Raceway
Laguna Seca.
But it was longtime rival Jonathan Rea
who left the dry lake bed with a commanding
championship points lead after winning Race
One and the Superpole race on Sunday and
fi nishing a conservative second behind Davies
in Race Two.
Davies' teammate Alvaro Bautista contin-
ued his catastrophic collapse, with the Italian
crashing in Race One all on his own, crashing
out of the Tissot Superpole race after his front
wheel was taken out by Toprak Razgatlioglu,
and pulling out of Race Two with an injured
left shoulder.
So as the series headed into its summer
break, Bautista, who once led by 61 points,
trailed Rea by 81 points, 433-352, with four
rounds remaining. Pata Yamaha WorldSBK
Team's Alex Lowes was third with 220 points,
just ahead of Pata Yamaha teammate Michael
van der Mark with 215.
The weekend started well for the Duca-
ti team, with Davies fi nally fi nding a set-up
that made him comfortable at a track that he
knows, loves, and has won at three times in
the past. At the end of Friday, Davies was frac-
tionally quicker than Rea, with Bautista just
behind and learning more about getting a Su-
perbike around Laguna Seca with every lap.
Saturday morning saw Rea back atop the
timesheets in practice, and then Rea fi red to a
1:21.876 to take pole position by 0.009-second
from Davies, with Bautista 0.172-second back
in third. Tom Sykes continued his progress on
the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team S1000RR,
taking fourth ahead of Rea's Kawasaki Racing
Team stablemate Leon Haslam and Team Ped-
ercini Racing's Jordi Torres, on the privateer
team’s Kawasaki ZX-10RR.
When the riders lined up for Race One,
Rea held a 24-point advantage, and he held the
lead for the fi rst fi ve laps of the race. Davies
trailed Bautista off the grid, but passed him
quickly and chased Rea. Davies had opted fora softer rear tire and
wanted to get into the
lead before it started to
go off. He actually got
under Rea once going
into Turn Two, but Rea
got a better drive out
of the Andretti Hairpin
and took the lead back.
Then, going into
Turn Five, Bautista
lost the front and
crashed. "I wasn’t even
pushing to the limit.
After a good start I was
fi ghting with Chaz and Jonathan but I sudden-
ly lost the front," Bautista said afterwards. It
was the fourth straight race weekend in which
Bautista had crashed, and while he remount-
ed, he was only able to fi nish 17th, out of the
points, and had the indignity of having the
blue fl ags waved at him to get out of the way as
Rea and Davies lapped him.
Davies' charge slowed as his rear tire
faded, but he had enough of a lead to hold off
Razgatlioglu and his Turkish Puccetti Racing
ZX-10RR. Sykes also opted for the soft tire,
and was struggling visibly with lurid slides
coming out of Turn Two at the end of the race,
fi nishing fourth ahead of Lowes and Torres.
The Superpole race went wrong for Bau-
tista in Turn Two of the fi rst lap. Razgatlioglu
turned toward the apex as Bautista was drift-
ing out, and the Kawasaki's rear tire hit the
Ducati's front. Bautista was down, out of the
race this time. Another crash at the Corkscrew
left American JD Beach, racing in both World
Superbike and MotoAmerica Superbike, out af-
ter being hit by Althea Mie Racing's Alessandro
Delbianco. The race was red-fl agged and re-
started, but Bautista did not make the restart,
and Rea set a lap record en route to a clear
win over Davies. Sykes' podium was his third
in three race weekends, the BMW starting to
challenge consistently.
Bautista did not make the sighting lap for
Race Two, and on the second lap of the race
pulled in, walked straight to the back of the
garage and sat, his chances for the title all but
gone. It was a stunning turnaround to the be-
ginning of the season when he won 11 straight
races. Bautista has podiumed in 18 of the 24races he started. But when Bautis-
ta has not been on the podium, he
has been out (or nearly out) of the
championship points.
The ray of sunlight for Ducati
was Davies, and the former AMA
Pro competitor seized the oppor-
tunity. He slowly eased away from Rea during
Race Two, and the Kawasaki rider didn't ap-
pear to try to close the gap at all. In the end,
Davies won by 3.333 seconds, with Rea more
than eight seconds clear of Razgatlioglu, the
Turkish rider once again taking his satellite
Kawasaki to the podium while factory-backed
Haslam struggled.
"I'm just super satisfi ed with our race
weekend," Rea said. "Two race wins, a lap re-
cord and a second—I can't complain. Looking
forward to my summer break."
"This means so much to me," Davies said.
"It's been a tough season for me. We've been
chipping away, trying so many things and just
not really fi nding my feet this year. My team
keeps trying to get me more comfortable, and
this is the result—a win here on U.S. soil is
amazing. I love Laguna, I love America, I love
California, and to bring home a win here is the
best way to go into the summer break."
Van der Mark continued to struggle with
his injured wrist, fi nishing seventh, 10th, and
then retiring. Lowes did better, with a fi fth,
sixth and fourth, but never looked like he
was in contention for a podium. GRT Yama-
ha's Marco Melandri, in his fi rst race since an-
nouncing his retirement effective at the end of
the year, and teammate Sandro Cortese were
both well off the front-runners’ pace.
Beach, on the Attack Performance Es-
tension Racing Yamaha YZF-R1, retired from
the fi rst race and did not restart the Superpole
sprint race after being taken out by Delbianco.
Beach fi nished 16th, just out of the points, in
Race Two.Davies Breaks Through
MOTUL FIM SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA
GEICO U.S. Round
Continued on page 40(Above) Start of Race Two at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Chaz Davies (7) leading Jonathan Rea (1),
Tom Sykes (66), Leon Haslam (91), Toprak Razgatlioglu (54), and Alex Lowes (22). Other notables include Alvaro
Bautista (19) and JD Beach (95). (Below, Right) Davies on the podium after winning. Photos by Brian J. Nelson.38—Roadracing World, August 2019