AUSTRALIAN CLASSICS: Razgatlioglu’s first win for Yamaha in 2020’s first race
The curtain-raiser for 2020 was an absolute thriller and it would see the start of a rather special partnership
The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season is readying for action and with the testing well underway and liveries being unveiled, a new season of stunning action is getting closer. However, in this, the last week of February, usually we’re waiting for the Australian Round, the traditional starting point. In tribute to this, we look back at the biggest fights from the Phillip Island battleground and they’re all FREE; we started the week with WorldSBK’s closest finish of all time from Race 1 in 2010, before going back to 1999 when Troy Corser beat Carl Fogarty on the run to the line. More battles were to be had in 2018, when the slipstream battle continued with Marco Melandri and Jonathan Rea, whilst in this one, it gives us the second-closest podium of all-time.
2020’s season-opener was a belter, one of the best – if not – the best, we’d ever seen. Jonathan Rea was aiming to defend his crown, Scott Redding was a rookie at Ducati, Tom Sykes went from his 50th career pole on the BMW and young sensation Toprak Razgatlioglu debuted with Yamaha, not to mention the all-new Honda CBR1000RR-R SP with 2019 runner-up Alvaro Bautista. All this made for a blistering first race, with drama from the start. Sykes and Rea collided at Turn 9, with Rea being forced off track and across the gravel, whilst Sykes, Redding, Razgatlioglu and even Ten Kate Racing Yamaha’s Loris Baz got in the mix.
With Rea crashing out as he came through the pack, there was a huge land of opportunity as to who could take the first win of the season. Razgatlioglu led the final lap with a narrow margin as he, Redding and Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes looked to try and take a debut win for their new team. Michael van der Mark was also keen to establish the running order at Yamaha, but Razgatlioglu was looking good. Lowes came thundering through on Redding at the final corner before launching an attack on Razgatlioglu, but the Turk held on. Lowes was second and Redding third, all three covered by 0.041s. It was the second-closest podium of all-time, after Monza in 1997. You can see the comparison here!
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