Aprilia's Eugene Laverty grabbed the second World Superbike race win at Laguna Seca today with identical passes on Davide Guigliano and then series leader Tom Sykes to give his chances of winning the title another lift.
The Irishman, who put an audacious move on Marco Melandri at the Corkscrew to grab a podium spot in race one yesterday, had the same end-of-race pace in the second clash as he held a watching brief behind the Althea Aprilia man - who appeared to be looking for a place to crash.
Laverty went up the inside of Guigliano with only four laps left to run and then set about the rear wheel of Sykes. The Kawasaki man couldn't put any time into the Monaco resident and Laverty simply slid inside Sykes on the penultimate lap to take the win.
However, Sykes' pain was far from over as Guigliano followed Laverty through on the same lap and then Marco Melandri also passed Sykes for the final podium spot at turn five. Sykes tried to get the better of the Italian but made a slight error at the Corkscrew and lost the tow.
Sykes had led the entire encounter with championship rival Sylvain Guintoli, who had none of yesterday's pace in his factory RSV4, in fifth and a win would have increased his title lead handsomely but he only gains two points over the Frenchman while Laverty hops into second place, 23 points behind the Huddersfield rider.
Jules Cluzel, Toni Elias, Roger Lee Hayden, Davide Salom and Michel Fabrizio rounded out the top ten with Leon Haslam in 11th. Chaz Davies pulled into the pits on lap two with a brake problem.
Laguna Seca World Superbike race two - conditions dry
1 3 58 E. LAVERTY IRL Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 Factory 26 1'23.944 254,6 1'22.728 253,4 16 25 338 2
2 6 34 D. GIUGLIANO ITA Althea Racing Aprilia RSV4 Factory 26 0.112 1'23.707 253,4 1'23.353 248,7 10 20 169 9
3 7 33 M. MELANDRI ITA BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK BMW S1000 RR 26 2.051 1'23.819 251,6 1'23.363 251,0 13 16 319 4
4 2 66 T. SYKES GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 26 2.304 1'23.964 255,2 1'22.698 255,8 25 13 361 1
5 1 50 S. GUINTOLI FRA Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 Factory 26 2.959 1'24.169 254,6 1'22.683 252,8 11 11 337 3
6 8 16 J. CLUZEL FRA Fixi Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 26 10.187 1'24.207 249,8 1'24.079 249,2 9 10 160 10
7 15 24 T. ELIAS ESP Red Devils Roma Aprilia RSV4 Factory 26 17.789 1'24.556 246,4 1'24.456 243,0 8 9 38 17
8 10 54 R. HAYDEN USA Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R1000 26 20.602 1'24.245 250,4 1'24.133 249,8 8 8 24
9 16 44 D. SALOM ESP Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 26 22.055 1'24.420 246,9 1'25.449 243,6 5 7 12 22
10 13 84 M. FABRIZIO ITA Pata Honda World Superbike Honda CBR1000RR 26 23.472 1'24.849 246,9 1'24.212 244,7 3 6 177 7
11 12 91 L. HASLAM GBR Pata Honda World Superbike Honda CBR1000RR 26 24.118 1'24.746 250,4 0.000 250,4 5 83 14
12 17 79 B. YOUNG USA Fixi Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 26 29.563 1'25.131 247,5 1'25.661 244,1 4 4 8 26
13 14 8 M. AITCHISON AUS Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 26 32.565 1'25.082 247,5 1'24.364 243,6 6 3 29 18
14 11 45 D. ESLICK USA Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R1000 26 51.777 1'24.688 246,4 1'24.153 246,4 2 2 33
15 4 59 N. CANEPA ITA Team Ducati Alstare Ducati 1199 Panigale R 26 1'05.824 1'24.889 246,4 1'22.824 249,8 1 12 21
16 19 31 V. IANNUZZO ITA Grillini Dentalmatic SBK BMW S1000 RR 26 1'23.892 1'26.788 241,9 1'25.975 241,9 1 26 19
17 20 14 G. ALLERTON AUS Next Gen Motorsports BMW S1000 RR 25 1 Lap 1'26.916 243,0 1'26.735 237,6 6 28
--------------------------------------------------Not Classified--------------------------------------------------
RET 9 86 A. BADOVINI ITA Team Ducati Alstare Ducati 1199 Panigale R 18 8 Laps 1'24.925 251,0 1'24.789 251,0 7 114 12
RET 5 19 C. DAVIES GBR BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK BMW S1000 RR 2 24 Laps 1'24.724 252,2 1'23.040 253,4 20 259 5
RET 18 23 F. SANDI ITA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R 0 1'25.668 239,2 2 47 16
