Chaz Davies has won the opening race of the day at Laguna Seca after a lights to flag display saw the British rider take the win by 1.798s. The Welshman led from start to finish as the Kawasaki teammates squabbled amongst themselves for second, Tom Sykes hanging on to defeat championship leader Jonathan Rea. Rea’s third place is ironically his “worst” result of the season. Leon Camier pushed the MV Agusta into tenth after slipping back to 14th early on.
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World SBK 201 – Laguna Seca – Superbike Podium – 2.
The decisive moment as far as victory was concerned came on lap one with Davies converting pole position into the lead at turn one while the Kawasakis of Rea and Sykes leapfrogged Davide Giugliano and Jordi Torres who both started sluggishly.
The 28-year-old had a 1.8-second advantage over Sykes at the chequered flag in race one, with the Yorkshireman’s Kawasaki team-mate Rea occupying the final podium spot.
Giugliano managed to get past Torres for fourth place with 12 laps to go and pulled a gap on the RSV4 while Alex Lowes, who made a small error early doors and slipped from fifth to eighth, managed to get back to sixth as Leon Haslam slipped off with five laps to go but re-mounted to end in 13th. Both riders finished comfortably ahead of Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia), who had a lonely ride to sixth after failing to finish in the first encounter.
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The remaining point scorers were Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven), Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing), Gianluca Vizziello (Grillini Racing) and Christophe Ponsson (Team Pedercini). The Italian rider escaped major injuries having been diagnosed with only right knee and heel contusions.
