Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes extended his lead in the overall World Superbike championship standings by 44 points, after he took the victory, in what was a dramatic final race of the day at Laguna Seca.
The red flags came out not once, but twice at the circuit, with separate crashes involving Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes and BMW Italia’s Sylvain Barrier. In the end Sykes ended up winning a seven lap dash, ahead of Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli and Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea.
On the opening lap before the stoppages, it was Sykes who had the edge over Guintoli and Aprilia's Marco Melandri to take the lead. Voltcom Suzuki's Eugene Laverty had a great start and was up to fourth by turn two. The Irishman was visibly pushing hard to stay at the sharp end and wasn’t letting the race one winner out of his sight.
By lap four Guintoli was closing the gap on Sykes, and it was neck and neck out on the Californian track. Then a lap later the Frenchman tried a move on the Brit, but failed and was overtaken by his team-mate, Melandri who went into second at the Corkscrew.
Further down the field Haslam was down to tenth, but made a move on his mate, Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes to go into ninth, with Rea holding on to eighth. But the Pata Honda man was not giving up and soon had Kawasaki’s Loris Baz as his next target, and with 19 laps remaining got the better of the youngster to go into seventh.
By lap ten the top three had a second advantage over Laverty, with Red Devils Roma’s Toni Elias out-pacing Ducati’s Davide Giugliano to go into fifth, but then the red flags came out as Lowes crashed into the back of Baz on the way to the Corkscrew and high-sided, bringing the race to a halt. The Derby-based rider was taken to the medical centre for checks, but eventually left on crutches, with a suspected ankle injury.
When the race was re-started it turned into a seven lap dash. It was Melandri who got the hole-shot with Sykes and Guintoli close behind. Rea had a great start and was up to fourth after turn two, ahead of Elias and Laverty.
Then the red flags came out again, but this time because of a crash on the start and finish straight involving BMW Italia’s Evo rider Sylvain Barrier on lap three. The French rider was also taken to the medical centre to be assessed, but fortunately was conscious and alert at the trackside.
When the circuit re-opened the riders had to face another seven-lapper. This time it was Melandri, again who got the best start, with Sykes and Guintoli hot on his tail. But as the Italian started to pull away from Sykes he low-sided on turn 11, and slid off the bike – allowing Sykes to take the lead.
With Melandri out of contention it pushed Giugliano into third, but he ended up crashing on the Corkscrew, and his bike fell into the middle of the track. Luckily no rider hit it coming down the steep incline on lap three. With the Ducati man out it pushed Elias into the provisional third spot on the podium.
Rea was not giving up on a rostrum finish and overtook Elias to go into third on the penultimate lap. But soon the former MotoGP rider had Laverty breathing down his neck, and he made a move that stuck to go into fourth. On the final lap Guintoli was not able to crack the Kawasaki of Sykes leaving the champion to extend his lead in the series, with Rea completing the top three.
Laverty, Elias, Baz and Haslam rounded up the top ten. Ducati’s Chaz Davies did not start the final race of the day, as he was deemed unfit to take part after a crash in race one, where it appeared that he suffered from possible mild concussion. He walked away from the incident, at the Corkscrew but stayed away from race two as a precaution - as instructed by the medics.
Alstare’s Evo rider, Christian Iddon ended the race in ninth, but his results wont count because of homologation rules. Leon Camier, who’s standing-in for the injured Claudio Corti on the Reparto Corse backed MV Agusta finished the final race of the day in tenth and inside the points.
