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Tom Sykes managed to get on pole position again! In race 1 he managed a 3rd place podium behind winner Marco Melandri and Leon Haslam on their Mottorad BMW’s which according to 5th place Max Biaggi were much faster than his slow Aprilia.

Race 2 was awesome with reigning champion Carlos Checa and Smrz going down on the 1st lap. At the front Sykes, Rea, Biaggi, Melandri and Haslam rode a scrappy race all the way constantly swapping positions. At one point Johny Rea had an off track excursion and fell way behind the leading group. Later he caught them back as Tom Sykes again struggled to keep pace with Max Biaggi and the 2 BMW’s of Melandri and Haslam.

On the final lap Haslam had the lead followed by Biaggi, Melandri and Rea. Biaggi ran wide allowing Melandri through and soon Rea barged his way past also. Melandri and Haslam scrapped it out for the rest of the lap. Melandri led into the final turn and out braked himself running wide. Haslam seized the chance to take the lead but left a slight gap for Rea. As Rea charged through Haslam turned in on him and was pushed into Melandri causing them both to go down. Rea won his 1st world superbike race while Haslam pushed the bike over the line to get a point. Sykes was over the moon as he was promoted to 3rd and now sits 2nd in the championship just 5 points behind Max Biaggi.

World Supersport
Jules Cluzel the winner at Monza was the pole man at Donington Park this weekend. Sam Lowes had been ill with sickness and suffered a finger injury in qualifying as he started 2nd on the grid. Sam managed to get to the front after a few tricky moves and pulled a bit of a gap. Then championship leader and former 2 time WSS champion Kenan Sofouglu worked his way through the traffic and caught up. The 2010 British supersport champion rode an intelligent race, riding defensively enough to take his maiden world supersport win in front of his home fans. He now sits just 6 points behind Sofouglu in the championship despite throwing it away while leading at Monza the week before. Hopefully he can go all the way and win the title.

“The Grinner” Tom Sykes won his first race of the season after being the pole man for the 1st 3 rounds. He was technically on pole at Monaza also after Sylvan Guintoli had a problem on the warm up lap and didn’t make the start. Sykes pulled away right from the start and led the race by over 10 seconds when it was red flagged at half distance due to rain. Race 1 had been cancelled due to the weather so despite a floor-less performance Sykes only netted 12.5 points for the whole weekend as only half points were awarded.
Six points now separate the top 3 with Tom just trailing the Moto GP dropouts, 2010 champion Max Biaggi and the reining champion Carlos Checa. The podium at Monza looked like a BSB podium with Leon Haslam 2nd and Eugene Laverty 3rd. About time the Brits started to show them how it’s done.

In the World Supersport championship British rider Sam Lowes qualified on pole again for the 3rd time in a row but still has yet to score his maiden victory in the class as he finished 2nd behind Jules Cluzel. He is now 2nd in the championship, just 10 points behind Kenan Sofuoglu.

Just caught the highlights on Eurosport. Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez were involved in a tremendous last lap battle swapping places at almost every corner. With about 2 corner to go Pol went in too hot and nearly ran off the track, he just managed to keep 2nd place from Tom Luthi in 3rd.

The Wizard of Oz was on it again, he took the lead from Danny Pedrosa in the first corner and kept the gap to George Lorenzo consistent for much of the race then pulled a gap of over a second towards the end. It was Casey Stoners first win at the circuit meaning that he has won races at every circuit on the Moto GP calender.

Cal Crutchlow put in another solid performance after qualifying 3rd he lost out to his teammate Dovizioso to come in 5th 5 seconds ahead of Bautista.

Valentino Rossi and Ben Spies both continue to under perform coming in 7th and 8th despite commentators claiming that “Rossi and Ducati have turned a corner in qualifying” again!

Randy Depuniet did his usual crash technique in qualifying taking Colin Edwards with him. Colin suffered a broken left collarbone and was unable to race.

At Oulton Park in the British Superbike Championship Shane Byrne and reigning champ Tommy Hill chalked up their first wins of the season. Chris Walker chalked up his first BSB win in 12 years siting that the new Evo rules have made things closer allowing him to hold his own. Walker managed to preserve his deteriorating wet tyre on the drying track keeping a big enough gap over his rivals on intermediates to take the win. Hopefully it won’t be his last time on the top step of the podium.