Rea dominates for Laguna Seca double, Laverty podium

Full WorldSBK race two results at Laguna Seca

Jonathan Rea has produced a carbon copy of his race one performance to double up at Laguna Seca and create further World Superbike history, while Eugene Laverty grabbed Milwaukee Aprilia’s maiden podium in the series.

Having sliced up to fourth place by lap two starting from ninth place on the reverse race grid, Rea notched up a series of fastest laps to reel in the leaders. After nipping past Michael van der Mark for second place on lap four the triple World Superbike champion ate into Laverty’s initial lead before passing him at the start of lap seven.

Rea then notched up a blistering race pace to quickly pull out a lead to storm to victory once again to take his fourth career World Superbike win at the US circuit – the most of any rider in history at Laguna Seca.

Behind Rea, Davies also barged past Laverty to take second place for Aruba.it Racing Ducati on lap 16 but with the World Superbike championship leader long gone the Welsh rider had to settle for another runner-up spot.

Laverty didn’t drop his pace despite seeing Rea and Davies pass him and held on for his first podium in four years – his last coming in race two at Sepang in 2014 – while also notching up the Shaun Muir Racing-run squad’s first-ever podium in the series.

The Milwaukee Aprilia squad rider kept clear of an intense battle between the Pata Yamaha pair as Alex Lowes won race-long tussle against van der Mark to take fourth place.

Xavi Fores claimed a distant sixth place for Barni Ducati, after Marco Melandri was an early faller for the factory Ducati squad, as he kept in front of Jordi Torres on the MV Agusta.

It was another frustrating race for Tom Sykes after poor opening laps saw him down in eighth place by the finish for Kawasaki. Jake Gagne secured his best career result in World Superbikes with ninth place for Red Bull Honda at his home event as Loris Baz rounded out the top ten for Althea BMW.

Leandro Mercado grabbed more points for Orelac Kawasaki ahead of Roman Ramos (Team GoEleven Kawasaki) as Leon Camier recovered from an early fall to finish in 13^th place for Red Bull Honda.

Karel Hanika (Guandalini Yamaha) and Yonny Hernandez (Pedercini Kawasaki) rounded out the points places as wildcard entry Josh Herrin suffered a horrible late race fade to drop out of the top 10 to just miss out on the points.