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More than Europe’s<br />
largest MC store<br />
By Graeme Brown<br />
discomfort of that session evaporated<br />
in the face of five valuable championship<br />
points on Sunday morning.<br />
It also highlights an oft overlooked<br />
fact that all of the top motorcycle<br />
racers today are supremely fit,<br />
highly trained athletes.<br />
Saturday’s race proceedings were<br />
interrupted by heavy downpours of<br />
rain, accompanied by frequent electrical<br />
storms. Sunday was warm and<br />
sunny but it didn’t stop lightning<br />
striking twice.<br />
The Superpole race had actually<br />
seen Bautista dominating again and<br />
as I said, I had already skipped to<br />
the last chapter. In my mind he was<br />
going to do the same in race two,<br />
another 25 points, and I was working<br />
out in my head at what race he<br />
would clinch the title.<br />
Hold your horses there GB. In a<br />
carbon copy of race two in Jerez,<br />
Bautista shot off into the lead in the<br />
first lap only to lose the front and go<br />
down at the start of the next. Like<br />
Jonathan’s moto gymnastics in the<br />
previous race I couldn’t believe it. It<br />
genuinely looked like a mistake but<br />
it was something that many riders<br />
commented about afterwards, that<br />
all weekend, in dry conditions, there<br />
was no predictable feeling with the<br />
tyres. AB19 was maybe just unlucky<br />
that he has suffered the same fate<br />
two weeks running but if it points to<br />
a deeper issue we could be in for a<br />
clichéd season of two halves.<br />
Bautista crashing out gave way to a<br />
three way Kawasaki battle between<br />
Toprak Razgatlioglu, Rea and Leon<br />
Haslam for the win. Haslam faded<br />
as the race went on, probably due<br />
to a very painful right hand, injured<br />
in a crash earlier in the weekend,<br />
and won out in a battle with Alex<br />
Lowes for third. Rea got the better<br />
of Razgatlioglu with four laps to go<br />
but the Turk mounted a challenge<br />
and treated us to an epic last lap<br />
battle with JR coming out on top. It<br />
meant that we had a Kawasaki lock<br />
out of the podium, the first time<br />
since Sugo 1993 when Kawasaki<br />
Muzzy team-mates Scott Russell<br />
and Aaron Slight sandwiched KRT<br />
wildcards Keiichi Kitagawa and<br />
Shoichi Tsukamoto to give Kawasaki<br />
the top four places. Significantly the<br />
podium from Sunday represented<br />
the KRT Suzuka 8Hr team for the<br />
prestigious endurance race at the<br />
end of July.<br />
<strong>On</strong>e thing I was pleased to see was<br />
that Saturday’s race one took place<br />
in the rain. As the thunderstorms<br />
rolled through bringing periods of<br />
torrential rain the red flag came out<br />
twice, after the initial sighting lap<br />
and again after three racing laps.<br />
I thought ‘here we go again’ and<br />
was waiting for the news that the<br />
race had been cancelled. However,<br />
once a couple of patches of standing<br />
water were cleared the race got<br />
back under way and, whilst it’s a bit<br />
miserable for me working in those<br />
conditions I was glad that racing<br />
went ahead.<br />
The grip problems in the dry however<br />
may have been a large contributing<br />
factor in Michael van der Mark’s<br />
crash. Looking at slow motion<br />
footage he seems to have lost the<br />
rear at the apex of the corner, when<br />
the bike was most likely still off<br />
the throttle. To lose the rear in that<br />
situation is pretty unusual. It was a<br />
big get-off and it was that strange<br />
feeling of relief that comes over us<br />
in bike racing that he ‘only’ had a<br />
bang on the head and a few broken<br />
bones. I think it is a shame that it<br />
happened when it did as Michael<br />
seemed to have made a connection<br />
with the R1 and was fast again on
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