MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

Yolanda Cervantes warbled and stretched the Star Spangled Banner ahead of twenty five laps of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. 

Alvaro Bautista started in tenth place, carrying a shoulder injury from his Tissot Superpole race crash, while Alessandro Delbianco started from the back of the grid for irresponsible riding in the morning's race. Tom Sykes stuck with the SCX Superpole tyre for the race, but Chaz Davies switched to a regular race tyre.

Chaz Davies used the massive power of the Ducati V4 to beat pole man Jonathan Rea into the Andretti Hairpin with Toprak Razgatlioglu in third place, getting another great start ahead of Tom Sykes. Alex Lowes, Leon Haslam, Jordi Torres and Loris Baz rounded out the top eight. 

On lap two, Davies stretched out his lead down the kinked start/finish straight, but Rea closed up into the corner on the brakes. At turn five, Rea passed Davies on a clean entry into the corner, but Davies was able to cut back underneath him at the exit to take the lead back. Davies then set the fastest lap while his teammate Alvaro Bautista pulled into the pits, his shoulder preventing him from racing.

Chaz Davies, Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu broke away from Tom Sykes, Alex Lowes and Leon Haslam and after Davies set the fastest lap again, Davies and Rea left Razgatlioglu behind. Michael van der Mark pulled out of the race with a technical issue on lap four. 

Jordi Torres and Loris Baz had a close battle for seventh place that would last throughout the whole race, both riders posting very close lap times throughout, but ahead of them, the leading three riders all started stretching out their gaps, with Davies finally breaking off Rea's tow on lap ten. 

On lap fourteen, there was movement as Alex Lowes, fourteen laps in Tom Sykes's shadow, passed Sykes's BMW as he went wide and had to let the Yamaha rider past. Lowes was then able to increase his pace and break free from Sykes and Leon Haslam. Loris Baz passed Jordi Torres on lap seventeen and that was it near the front. 

The rest of the race played out without change, as Chaz Davies controlled his lead two, three, four seconds ahead of Jonathan Rea and, a few seconds further back, Toprak Razgatlioglu. 

Chaz Davies became the first rider to win a race this year, ahead of Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu. Alex Lowes finished in fourth place, with Tom Sykes in fifth place closing the gap to him in the last few laps. Leon Haslam finished in a lonely sixth place. 

Chaz Davies let out a scream on his Ducati in Parc Fermé, and thanked his American fans for coming to "witness the comeback". Jonathan Rea's second place puts him an astounding eighty one points clear of Alvaro Bautista who leaves California having scored no points. 

Alex Lowes takes third place in the championship from his teammate Michael van der Mark as Leon Haslam, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Chaz Davies and Tom Sykes all close up the six-way chase for third place.

Toprak Razgatlioglu ended the weekend in his improving English with "again podium, now holiday."

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