600
Portugal gave us another Stock 600 race and another astounding performance from Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) who has won every one of the five rounds so far.
After the opening two Stock 600 races at Aragon, one at Assen, one at Imola and now again in Portugal, Razgatlioglu has a perfect 125 points in total and came close to winning the championship outright - with three rounds to spare – just a few days ago.
His latest victory came after an outstandingly close and combative fight with another Kawasaki rider, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (San Carlo team Italia Kawasaki) with the Turkish rider once more outfoxing his opponents, however close they may be behind. The four leading riders were within 0.381 seconds of each other at Portimao and there is no tighter class in the overall WSB racing paddock.
Razgatlioglu’s points advantage over second place rider Federico Caricasulo is now 64, with Rinaldi just one point behind the runner-up spot.
Between Razgatlioglu and Rinaldi’s efforts, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R riders have led all but seven of the 59 race laps completed this year so far.
1000
After recent surgery to relieve ‘arm pump’ in his right forearm Kawasaki’s leading Superstock 1000 FIM Cup competitor, Bryan Staring (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) felt more like the rider who has won three previous Stock 1000 races with Kawasaki, when he raced at Portimao last weekend.
Free from the issues in his arm that have held back some of his 2015 performances; in the 14-lap race Staring equalled his best performance of the year with sixth place in Portugal.
The popular Aussie rider is on a mission to improve his qualifying performances on fresh tyres from now on, to ensure he can get away with the leading riders and take higher finishing positions.
The Ninja ZX-10R rider, eighth in the championship standings overall, is now only three points from the rider in front and has three rounds in which to move up the rankings.
Sebastien Suchet (Team BSR Kawasaki) also scored at Portimao on his Ninja ZX-10R, with the Swiss rider 15th in both the race and the championship with five rounds gone. The next meeting will be at Misano, with raceday on June 21st.