*** Spoiler Alert *** WSBK 2015 Philip Island

That was awesome.

Race 2

Haslam
Rea
Davies

Chaz feels very confident on the bike !

Leon Haslam denied Jonathan Rea a glorious double at Phillip Island after out-dragging the Kawasaki rider on the run to the line to claim his first victory on the Red Devils Aprilia.

In a repeat of their final-lap battle in race one, the pair were at loggerheads again in another stunning race in Australia, with Haslam jumping from third to first after powering past Ducati's Chaz Davies and race leader Rea on the Gardner Straight on the penultimate lap.

Haslam seemed to have all bases covered as Rea looked for a way past but incredibly the new Kawasaki signing found a way through on the run up the hill towards Lukey Heights.

With few opportunities remaining to make a pass, it appeared as though Haslam would have to settle for second best yet again but the British rider built up enough momentum as he exited the final corner to edge past Rea on the line, with the official margin of victory only 0.010s.

Davies again finished third on the Ducati as British riders took a clean sweep of the rostrum once more, with Tom Sykes, Sylvain Guintoli and Nicol Terol the top six.

Series rookies Michael van der Mark and Jordi Torres both crashed out while running in the top six in the final third of the race.

Troy Bayliss finished 16th on the Aurba.it Ducati after pitting to change tyres, while Leon Camier came home in eighth on the MV Agusta behind Voltcom Crescent Suzuki's Randy de Puniet.

Alex Lowes had a weekend to forget after the Suzuki rider was an early retirement.

Phl said:

Chaz feels very confident on the bike !

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He did look it. When he passed both Rea and Haslam I thought he's gonna win. Looked like his tire quit after turn 12 though. He needs a bit more top end to keep up with the Kaw and Ape on the straights.

Hey 2x third, 2x on podium, great start

Two REALLY Exciting races.!!!! The Ducati, with Chaz Davies looks really strong, but maybe a tad down on power compared to the Aprilia and Kawaski. Can't wait for the rest of the season...

WSBK is some of the best racing in any car or bike series, period...

80shilling said:

Two REALLY Exciting races.!!!! The Ducati, with Chaz Dabies looks really strong, but maybe a tad down on power compared to the Aprilia and Kawaski. Can't wait for the rest of the season...

WSBK is some of the best racing in any car or bike series, period...

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I agree!

Because you already know the Race/Podium spots for MotoGP....Marquez, Rossi, Lorenzo or Pedrosa...not in that exact order!

You mean Marquez #1. Then Rossi, Lorenzo, and Pedrosa, not in that order =-)

Chaz looked good. But, that panigale was at its limit...a little over IMHO. Hopefully other tracks will equalize the bikes.

The 1199 was down on power, but I wonder how Davide would have done. He has been the faster of the two Ducati riders all winter. And was the faster Ducati rider in free practice. I'll take 2 third place finishes. Consistency wins the title at the end of the season.

The old +250cc for the twins over the 4's needs to be reinstated, the development of the 4 cylinder plus electronics has negated the advantage of the twin. Chaz did and excellent job considering he couldn't even stay in the draft of the Kawi and Aprillia.

Ljuice26 said:

The 1199 was down on power, but I wonder how Davide would have done. He has been the faster of the two Ducati riders all winter. And was the faster Ducati rider in free practice. I'll take 2 third place finishes. Consistency wins the title at the end of the season.

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I assume that Ducati is still being limited by 50mm restrictor plates on the 67mm throttle bodies? It seems that this is a bit of an excessive attempt of "leveling" the playing field. Chaz had the lead and came out of turn 8(?) onto the start straight with the Kawi and Ape on his ass. You would have thought he was standing on the back brake the way those bikes walked away from him down that straight. I guess it seems a bit silly to me to take an engine that is making 205hp in stock trim like the 4 bangers do and then severely choke it down like this. The 'R appears overly restricted IMO if it can't hang on long drag races down the straights.
I'm not a rules expert and google didn't help me, so what do ya'll think?? Regardless, it's clear that Ducati made some solid changes to the 'R for '15 and you can see it becoming competitive finally!

I didn't notice the Panigale down on power at all. Chaz powered past Rea at the end of the front straight before turn 1. The APE looked to have the highest top speed, but all the top bikes were strong in the draft. It was a good, close, racing. Haslam and Rea just seemed to want it more than Chaz and were more aggressive. The Ducs have an advantage this year, no excuses.

Davide will be just as aggressive as Rea and Haslam, so we'll see what happens when he returns (only issue is he is aggressive but often crashes out).

Eleven 99 said:

I didn't notice the Panigale down on power at all. Chaz powered past Rea at the end of the front straight before turn 1. The APE looked to have the highest top speed, but all the top bikes were strong in the draft. It was a good, close, racing. Haslam and Rea just seemed to want it more than Chaz and were more aggressive. The Ducs have an advantage this year, no excuses.

Davide will be just as aggressive as Rea and Haslam, so we'll see what happens when he returns (only issue is he is aggressive but often crashes out).

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I'm not asking for rule changes and I actually loved all the close racing yesterday. Davide will be more aggressive than Chaz, but consistency wins and Davide will likely crash because he lacks it. If you think there wasnt a HP difference between the APE/Kawi and the 1199, you are crazy. I think Ducati just needs to find a few more HPs and they will be fine. Davide was the fastest rider all winter, so they will be fine. The new young guns are HUNGRY!!!

Ljuice26 said:

I'm not asking for rule changes and I actually loved all the close racing yesterday. Davide will be more aggressive than Chaz, but consistency wins and Davide will likely crash because he lacks it. If you think there wasnt a HP difference between the APE/Kawi and the 1199, you are crazy. I think Ducati just needs to find a few more HPs and they will be fine. Davide was the fastest rider all winter, so they will be fine. The new young guns are HUNGRY!!!

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I'm crazy then , because I didn't see any real acceleration difference. I remember Davies was all over Rea's rear wheel including on the straight and even overtook Rea on the straight once. That would never have happened last year because the 1199 was clearly down on power then.

Davide is pretty much always the fastest when it comes to setting lap times, he just can't maintain that pace throughout an entire race. He tries to ride at 100% all the time and that really doesn't work for anyone not named Marc Marquez.

Pilot said:

I assume that Ducati is still being limited by 50mm restrictor plates on the 67mm throttle bodies? It seems that this is a bit of an excessive attempt of "leveling" the playing field. Chaz had the lead and came out of turn 8(?) onto the start straight with the Kawi and Ape on his ass. You would have thought he was standing on the back brake the way those bikes walked away from him down that straight. I guess it seems a bit silly to me to take an engine that is making 205hp in stock trim like the 4 bangers do and then severely choke it down like this. The 'R appears overly restricted IMO if it can't hang on long drag races down the straights.
I'm not a rules expert and google didn't help me, so what do ya'll think?? Regardless, it's clear that Ducati made some solid changes to the 'R for '15 and you can see it becoming competitive finally!

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The Ducati's have not had air restrictors in WSBK since June 2013.

Eleven 99 said:

I'm crazy then , because I didn't see any real acceleration difference. I remember Davies was all over Rea's rear wheel including on the straight and even overtook Rea on the straight once. That would never have happened last year because the 1199 was clearly down on power then.

Davide is pretty much always the fastest when it comes to setting lap times, he just can't maintain that pace throughout an entire race. He tries to ride at 100% all the time and that really doesn't work for anyone not named Marc Marquez.

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Trap speeds in practice were very similar, but it did not appear that Davies could break the draft and steam on by the way the RSV4 and ZX-10 could. Although he wasn't exactly left for dead, just not quite enough to motor on by on the start finish straight. Could very well have been how he got of the final corner or something as well, or the fact he's physically much bigger than the other guys. The Eurosport commentators discussed it all through both races. However, it's just one track and the first round.

I do think Davide would have done slightly better, he was flying before he went down. All just IMHO though and not to be confused with facts =)

shakazulu12 said:

Trap speeds in practice were very similar, but it did not appear that Davies could break the draft and steam on by the way the RSV4 and ZX-10 could. Although he wasn't exactly left for dead, just not quite enough to motor on by on the start finish straight. Could very well have been how he got of the final corner or something as well, or the fact he's physically much bigger than the other guys. The Eurosport commentators discussed it all through both races. However, it's just one track and the first round.

I do think Davide would have done slightly better, he was flying before he went down. All just IMHO though and not to be confused with facts =)

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Agreed. Chaz is much bigger than most of the guys on track, so that is a hinderence. Also, I agree that the 2015 R is much faster than the 2014, but as you stated, he couldnt break the draft and motor by.

I'm going to have to go back and watch both races, but in one of them Chaz definitely did break the draft and motor right by Rea. He couldn't or didn't do it a lot, but none of the riders including Haslam were always in position to draft by on the straight. I'm just trying to say that Chaz did prove the Panigale could pass the 10R on the straight.

Edit: Race 2, end of lap 19, Chaz powers right by Rea on the straight to take the lead. IMO, he probably could have done it a few other times, but he didn't want to show that card until towards the end of the race.

He did it one time, but if you watch the tire race, Chaz was on the edge and couldn't draft pass. If he could have earlier, he would have. In the first race, he just couldn't, so I bet they made a change to make the tires last longer and got one good drive to see if he could get out in front at the end. It worked, but after they got passed him on lap 20, he was done, settled for 3rd.