With the Imola round of WSB incoming this very weekend, here’s some interesting facts and figures about the venue and it’s WSB history, direct from the WSB press office – those nice people!
1. With his win in Race 2 at Assen, Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) ended a drought of six races outside the podium, which is his longest since 2012. This happened when he was off the podium for the same number in the Miller, Misano and Aragon weekends.
2. Sykes’ podium in Race 2 was a record as it was his 101st for Kawasaki. This eclipsed the all-time record of 100 podiums for a single manufacturer, set by Carl Fogarty (Ducati) at Phillip Island 18 years ago (23rd of April, 2000).
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3. Race 2 at Assen was the 150th straight race with a Kawasaki in the points. Now they have 50 more to go to equal their record of 200, set from Sugo 1990/1 to Laguna Seca 1998/2. The all-time record string belongs to Ducati, with 344 straight races in the points from Brainerd 1991/1 to Valencia 2005/1.
4. Imola so far has been a circuit which has seemingly favoured doubles, with the same winner in both races on ten occasions out of fourteen rounds. Recently there have been seven doubles in the last eight visits here: Carlos Checa (2010-2012), Tom Sykes (2013), Jonathan Rea (2014-2015), Chaz Davies (2016-2017).
5. If Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) leads for more than 6 laps in the upcoming weekend, he will be the first rider to have led more than 100 laps at this track. He had the chance to record this feat last year, but failed to lead in both races.
6. Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider Chaz Davies’ victory from ninth on the grid in Race 2 last year was the only win not from the front row in the last 14 races run at Imola.
7. So far Imola has had twelve different riders qualifying for pole out of 15 race weekends. The only riders who have scored more than one pole are present in the current field: Tom Sykes with 3 and Chaz Davies with 2.
8. Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes are the only riders with 10 podiums at this track: they reached this milestone last year. Next up is Noriyuki Haga at 7.
9. The last ten races held here were all won by British riders; Sykes, Rea and Davies. This is a stunning record for only one country at Imola, as the next best is a string of three by Spain (all by Carlos Checa) from 2011 Race 2 to 2012 Race 2.
10. Pole position has been decided here by less than one tenth of a second on five occasions. The last time was last year, when Chaz Davies and Tom Sykes were separated by 0.032 seconds.
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