WSBK: Race 1 at Miller Motorsports Park

Race 1 of the World Superbike stop at Miller Motorsports park was red-flagged, after a highside left riders and bikes lying on the track. This hazard left the race directors no choice but to red flag the race. After the track was cleared, and the riders made it off the course, a second starting of Race 1 was to be had, with the winner to be decided on aggregate times (the times from the two races dded together, and the winner being determined by the total time from both heats). Continue reading for all the spoilers of Race 1 at Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City, Utah.

It was Celani Suzuki’s Karl Muggeridge who suffered a bad highside, which left him and his bike in the middle of the track. After lying on the track for a few minutes, Muggeridge got up under his own power, and walked to the ambulance, where he was whisked off to the medical center for examination.

The restart was frustrating for Spies, who had gapped the field by 4.5 seconds in the first heat of Race 1. The re-griding would mean that Spies would once again be in the fray with the rest of the field, but also meant that the Texan would only have to stay in-touch with any passing rivals in order to beat them in points.

At the restart, Spies didn’t get off the line quite as well as before, and was beaten into the first turn by Ryuichi Kiyonari. But Kiyo’s advantage would only last for a couple of corners, as the Texan soon stuffed his Yamaha R1 ahead of the Ten Kate Honda and began gapping the field once again.

Kiyonari was quickly joined by his team mate, Carlos Checa, who had forced his way past Max Biaggi on the first lap. Biaggi then started to drop through the field.

Checa wasted no time passing teammate Kiyonari, moving into 2nd place, and began to pull away from Kiyonari, and giving chase to Spies. That chase was to be in vain though, as Ben Spies delighted a “home” crowd to an effortless victory in the Rocky Mountains.

With the top two spots settled, there was still plenty of racing going on.

Johnny Rea caught, passed, and pulled-away from Kiyonari, who fell into the clutches of Max Biaggi.

Further down the field, a huge scrap developed for 6th position, involving the Kawasaki’s of Jamie Hacking and Broc Parkes, the factory Ducati’s of Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio, and the Honda of Leon Haslam. Hacking would give the other riders a quick education of the phrase “home field advantage” and was able to quickly get past Haga, who clearly was still suffering from a back injury from his crash Saturday.

A rather rash move by Hacking while trying to get around teammate Parkes, saw both riders running wide, which allowed Michel Fabrizio through. Eventually, Hacking passed Parkes,  giving chase to Fabrizio who was in the process of hunting down Max Biaggi.

Fabrizio caught and passed both Kiyonari and Biaggi before the final lap, eventually crossing the line in 4th, but more importantly, finishing 3rd on the aggregate time behind Spies and Checa.

Spies had an astonishing ride and smashed the lap record on his first flying lap. Cast in Spies shadow, Checa would have been unstoppable if it hadn’t been for Spies and performed very well for the day thus far.

Fabrizio got some precious points in Race 1 for the overall Championship standings, but did have to concede the overall second place position to Spies. Haga had a very tough race, with the restart hurting the championship leader. He finished 9th in Race 1, bleeding championship points the whole way through.

Results from Race 1 of the World Superbike stop at Miller Motorsports Park:

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