WSBK: Red Flags Mean Second Chances for Race 2 at MMP

With clean racing for Race 1 at Miller Motorsports Park, World Superbike’s Race 2 was interrupted after a few laps with a red flag incident caused by Hiroshi Aoyama’s Honda CBR1000RR crashing, and spilling fluid onto the track. This proved to be bad news for Carlos Checa, who like in Race 1, had gotten clear of the field, and was able to once again run his own race. Instead, Checa had to contend with strong showings from Marco Melandri and Tom Sykes, proving that the restart of Race 2 would be another good battle.

As the lights went out for the restart, Marco Melandri again lead through the first turn, with Sykes and Checa following. Checa would find his way again into the lead, and slowly broke away from the field with his better-handling Ducati. That lead wouldn’t last though, as with 13 laps left in the race, Checa went down, and brought his bike into the garage, only to end up back out on the course a few laps later.

Meanwhile on the track, Jonathan Rea went on a tear, having first a great battle with Chaz Davies (who was having a great race in his own right), and then started putting pressure on the new race leader, Marco Melandri. Getting around Melandri, the two riders had an epic battle to the line, as Marco Melandri returned the favor to Jonathan Rea coming down the straight, and into the final lap. With Rea chasing all the way to the finish line, Melandri just managed to hold off the Brit, and brought BMW is second race win on the S1000RR.

Equally entertaining was the race for third between Chaz Davies and Max Biaggi. Stalking the front group, Biaggi finally got his factory Aprilia past Davies and his similar satellite machinery, with the Roman Emperor making his move on the front straight. Despite trading positions in T2, Biaggi makes the pass stick in T3, and then broke away from Davies.

Because of that late effort and the crash by Checa, Biaggi retains his lead in the Championship standings, with 18 points separating him from Marco Melandri and Tom Sykes. Jonathan Rea sits fourth in the Championship, 19.5 points behind Biaggi. World Superbike racing returns to Europe on June 10th at Misano.

Race 2 Results from World Superbike at Miller Motorsports Park, USA:

Pos.	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Diff.
1.	Marco Melandri	BMW Motorrad Motorsport	BMW S1000 RR	32’56.257	–
2.	Jonathan Rea	Honda World Superbike Team	Honda CBR1000RR	32’56.452	0.195
3.	Max Biaggi	Aprilia Racing Team	Aprilia RSV4 Factory	32’58.394	2.137
4.	Chaz Davies	ParkinGO MTC Racing	Aprilia RSV4 Factory	33’00.502	4.245
5.	Tom Sykes	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki ZX-10R	33’05.791	9.534
6.	Eugene Laverty	Aprilia Racing Team	Aprilia RSV4 Factory	33’06.055	9.798
7.	Davide Giugliano	Althea Racing	Ducati 1098R	33’08.148	11.891
8.	Leon Haslam	BMW Motorrad Motorsport	BMW S1000 RR	33’08.972	12.715
9.	Jakub Smrz	Team Effenbert Liberty Racing	Ducati 1098R	33’09.274	13.017
10.	Sylvain Guintoli	Team Effenbert Liberty Racing	Ducati 1098R	33’09.960	13.703
11.	Leon Camier	FIXI Crescent Suzuki	Suzuki GSX-R1000	33’11.944	15.687
12.	Michel Fabrizio	BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet	BMW S1000 RR	33’18.180	21.923
13.	Ayrton Badovini	BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet	BMW S1000 RR	33’20.197	23.94
14.	Loris Baz	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki ZX-10R	33’20.308	24.051
15.	Maxime Berger	Team Effenbert Liberty Racing	Ducati 1098R	33’30.154	33.897
16.	John Hopkins	FIXI Crescent Suzuki	Suzuki GSX-R1000	33’34.949	38.692
17.	Leandro Mercado	Team Pedercini	Kawasaki ZX-10R	33’43.960	47.703
18.	Jake Holden	Grillini Progea Superbike Team	BMW S1000 RR	34’03.480	67.223
19.	Shane Turpin	Boulder Motor Sports	Ducati 1098R	34’37.971	101.714
RET	David Salom	Team Pedercini	Kawasaki ZX-10R
RET	Carlos Checa	Althea Racing	Ducati 1098R
RET	Niccoló Canepa	Red Devils Roma	Ducati 1098R
RET	Lorenzo Zanetti	PATA Racing Team	Ducati 1098R
DNS	Hiroshi Aoyama	Honda World Superbike Team	Honda CBR1000RR