A double win on the weekend at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao, Portugal for Kawasaki Racing Team’s (KRT) Jonathan Rea sees him extend his 2017 World Superbike (WSBK) championship lead to 431 points, 120 points ahead of KRT team mate Tom Sykes at 311 points.
With 11 wins in the season, Rea has a chance to wrap up the WSBK championship when the circus moves to France for the race in Magny-Cours in two weeks time. This will make it the 30-year old Northern Irishman’s third consecutive WSBK title, riding the 2017 Kawasaki ZX-10RR.
Beaten to top place on the podium were Michael van der Mark of Pata Yamaha in second, with Marco Melandri, riding for Aruba.it Racing Ducati, in third. Earlier in June this year, Rea clocked up Kawasaki’s 100th WSBK race win at Donington Park, England.
Meanwhile, on the same weekend, the World SSP 300 race saw a female racer win at world championship level. Riding for Spanish outfit ETG Racing, Ana Carrasco Gabarrón, aged 20, took her debut victory in the series riding a Kawasaki Ninja 300.
Gabarron, who comes from Murcia, Spain, beat Italian Alfonso Coppola of SK Racing and Spaniard Marc Garcia of Halcourier Racing who come in second and third, respectively, riding Yamaha YZF-R3s. Gabarron started her motorcycle racing career in Moto3 in 2013, before moving to SSP300 in the WSBK series, and currently stands at seventh in the rider rankings.
Mr Mohan,
Ana Carrasco Gabarrón is from MURCIA, Spain, not Murica, as in America..
This is the era of Team Green domination in WSBK, it’s like it’s about time for Kawi to consider entering MotoGP. But expect some further technical regs. changes in the year 2019 WSBK (the anticipated debut year for the Ducati V4 Panigale, the current new Suzuki GSX-R 1000 & the all-new BMW S1000RR) to further level the playing field, most likely in the form of spec-ECUs.