WSB podium after Race 1 at Assen.
The fourth round of the WSB championship was held at the iconic Assen venue this weekend, and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki), the dominant force in the championship, recorded his third double win of the year.
In Race 1, Rea took the checkered flag after Ducati’s Chaz Davies suffered a mechanical problem on the final lap, while dicing for the lead with Rea. This allowed Rea’s teammate Tom Sykes to finish second with Marco Melandri third.
In Race 2, Rea battled to the end with teammate Sykes before taking another win. Finishing third behind Sykes was Davies.
You will find full Race 1 results here here and full Race 2 results here. Rea has already accumulated a massive points lead in the series. For additional details, results and points, visit the official WSB site.
See more of MD’s great photography:
The new Honda has an inline four and 1000 cc and is a total “boat anchor”.
On other news new ships with Honda anchors instead of engines twice faster.
Everything after commercials….
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Wow! So exciting…………..for Jonathan Rae’s mom. For everyone else: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
At some point, is not complete, total, and consecutive series domination not suicidal for both the series and Kawasaki’s marketing goals? By June Rea has bagged the series even if he doesn’t show the rest of the season. Do you call you friends after the last race in October and shout with baited breath: “Did you HEAR? Rea won WSBK!”
BOOOOOR-ing…….
I just find it hilarious that our resident pedant doesn’t know how to spell – or correctly use – the word “bated”…
Wasn’t boring at all.super close race Sunday just because they were both Kawasakis doesn’t make it a dull race The Saturday race would have been exciting right down to the finish if the Ducati wouldn’t have broken
re: “Wow! So exciting…………..for Jonathan Rae’s mom. For everyone else: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”
ROTFLMAO aw man I got tears in my eyes over here. that’s wrong but it’s so right. LOL
So, what is the solution? It is Team Kawasaki’s job to win, not just races but championships. Same with Rea and Sykes. Same with every other team and rider. If other teams want to win, they need to be better, either by spending more cash on development, or finding/training better talent.
In the 90’s everyone bitched because Florida State kept dominating NCAA football games, and while I don’t like coach Bowden he made a good point when asked about it; (paraphrasing) “Its the other coach’s job to stop me from scoring points.”
The pendulum will swing and another team will come along and shake things up. While I admit the podiums are starting to look too much alike, the races themselves remain very fun to watch, and I would hate to see the governing body put restrictions on Kawasaki rather than allowing another team to beat them on a level playing field.
re: “Rea has already accumulated a massive points lead in the series”
uggh, so not good for the series, it’s only May 1st. 🙁
There is something to this. Apparently WSB was at it’s strongest in the era of Doohan domination in GPs. It was an exciting alternative. Although personally I was happy to see Mick winning week in week out….
I never did make it to Assen. Though I bought a motorcycle, a Ducati, from a couple that lived just south of the track. My interest in all road racing died with 500GP.
Okay, I’ll bite: why did you come here to comment? If you don’t care about roadracing anymore, why bother to show up, read the article, and post a comment?
Every iteration of GP and SBK racing has its own heroes, villains, underdogs, and champions. People who only appreciate one iteration of the sport from a specific snapshot of time confuse me.
More cc’s won’t help Ducati if they can’t keep it running for a full race. What a shame!
Quick, somebody give the Ducatis an extra 200cc!!!! 🙂
Nothing but a V-6 1800 cc for the ducs. Soon.
Don’t know how they got the FIM’s arm twisted behind their backs to allow for a 1,300 cc in the championship.
They demonstrated that a two cylinder engine of equal displacement could not generate competitive horsepower for the tracks that WSBK is contested on. Why does this keep coming up as an issue? When Ducati has been dominant it was not because of 200cc’s, it was because they brand committed to the class with their wallet, same as Kawasaki is doing now.
More cc’s probably aren’t the answer at this point. There were Kawasaki’s at the back of the finishing order, too.
Q: Why does this keep coming up as an issue?
A: “dumbed down” Moto-IQ’s, superficial understanding of things technical.
sadly the answer’s not pretty, but it IS the answer we’ve always known.
It keeps coming up because being 50 I can just about remember a time when capacity limits meant something. 125 – 250 – 500 – 750 . There is a kind of natural beauty of mathematical grandeur in it, is there not??
😉
Same way Kawasaki lobbied to get twice as many cylinders as Ducati. So unfair!
re: “Don’t know how they got the FIM’s arm twisted behind their backs to allow for a 1,300 cc in the championship”
OMG Norm missed the memo, here he is foolishly thinking the cap is only 1200.
re: “OMG Norm missed the memo, here he is foolishly thinking the cap is only 1200”
I missed it as well, I am always out of the loop on stuff like this. I just found out THIS morning that Johnny Rea has an R-spec H2 engine in his race bike. That totally explains why Tom just can’t seem to hang with him.
re: “Johnny Rea has an R-spec H2 engine in his race bike.”
aarrrgh, that sneaky sumummabitch…
I KNEW IT…!!!
They let the Ducati have twice as many cams, too! (Not poking fun at you. Some of the regulars here will probably get that one.)
While Ducati makes a 1299 Panigale, WSBK is still capped at 1200cc.
Between this and the observation on the new Gixxer…. it could happen that those are actually GTR650’s in disguise, … TM was right all the time… we have been so blind all this time…
Salute our new motorcyl-ish hyosung overlords!!!
or an extra 3-4 volts…
It comes down to valve area, 4 cyls,16 valves,2 cyls, 8 valves and piston area to run enough to compete. If you want to see a 4 cylinder parade, take it away. Personally I’d like to see a triple in the mix also.