WSBK ran race 1 at Most in the Czech Republic today. All the usual suspects were at the front. Toprak Razgatlioglu led the first 5 laps before succumbing to pressure from Jonathan Rea. Rea led the next 4 laps, and Alvaro Bautista passed them both to take the lead. In the later stages of the race, Scott Redding worked his way up to second. But on the last lap he was pushed out of the way by Razgatlioglu, and then by Rea, before forcing himself back past Rea. Bautista won, Razgatlioglu 2nd, Redding matches his best finish of the season in 3rd, Rea 4th and Axel Bassani 5th. Peter Hickman filled in on the other factory BMW bike for an injured Michael van der Mark, qualifying 21st and finishing 22nd. His FHO Racing teammate in British Superbikes, Ryan Vickers, filled in for Leon Haslam who had obligations with Kawasaki to prepare for the Suzuka 8 Hours race. Vickers qualified 24th and finished 23rd. It's interesting that Vickers rides a BMW in BSB and was allowed to ride a Kawasaki in WSBK. I didn't think the manufacturers would allow such a thing. Anyway. Superpole and Race 2 tomorrow.
MotoAmerica got off to a tragic start at Brainerd on Friday. Stock 1000 rider Scott Briody was killed in a single-bike crash in practice. All on-track activities were cancelled on Friday.
Racing went as planned Saturday. Jake Gagne started on the pole. Danilo Petrucci, Mathew Scholtz and Richie Escalante were all involved in practice crashes, with Escalante being unable to start the race in his 5th qualifying spot. Gagne had a one second lead by lap 2, and maintained it at 5 seconds for the rest of the race. Petrucci and Cameron Petersen had a tight race for second before Petrucci ran off track, giving second to Petersen. Gagne 1st, Petersen 2nd, Petrucci 3rd, Scholtz 4th and PJ Jacobsen 5th. Race 2 is tomorrow.