Superbike: The championship returns to Laguna Seca

Superbike returns this weekend to the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the Geico US Round, the ninth event of the season, the only one on the calendar to take place on the American continent, where a WorldSBK round will take place for the thirteenth time (the first was in 1995) .

The first race in the history of the Superbike World Championship at Laguna Seca was won in a sprint by Anthony Gobert over his compatriot Troy Corser and was the first of nine victories by Australian riders on this track, compared to the seven obtained by Americans: important numbers which, however, will not suffer variations this year, given the absence of standard bearers for both nations.

3610m long, Laguna Seca is the fourth and last anti-clockwise track on the calendar and is characterized by numerous changes in gradient, extremely evident at the "Corkscrew", in all respects the most famous curve in the world of motorcycling.

After having literally dominated the season so far, Jonathan Rea arrives in America on the strength of 11 wins out of 16 races played, with the remaining all finishing in second place.
Surprisingly however, the Northern Irishman has not yet won on any of the five tracks still to be visited in this edition: Laguna Seca, Sepang, Jerez, Magny-Cours and Losail.
Given the recent trend, it is more than plausible that this taboo will also be broken by the leader of the ranking, who currently boasts a streak of 17 consecutive podiums: only Colin Edwards managed to do better, with 25 consecutive top-3 finishes , all dated 2002.

Looking at the current list of entries in the World Championship, the reference driver at Laguna Seca is certainly Tom Sykes: the 2013 world champion is the only driver currently on the grid to have won here, doing so once for each of the last two editions.

The rider most linked to this track, however, is the Argentinian Leandro Mercado, who took his first steps in motorcycling in the AMA, the American championship: after several years of waiting he will return to Laguna Seca, this time riding the Panigale R of the Barni Racing Ducati team, with which he is having a good season.

The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team arrives in America on the strength of the three days of testing held at Mugello during the break between the eighth and ninth rounds, which found an exceptional tester in Carlos Checa: his indications will be certainly useful to Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano, eager to do well at Laguna Seca after the podiums achieved in the recent past (2013), also considering that Ducati is still the manufacturer with the highest number of successes at Laguna Seca in WorldSBK, ten .

Like every year, certainly also in this edition the fascinating American track will offer great emotions, even if with an advantage of 133 points over teammate Tom Sykes, it seems that the championship is now firmly in the hands of Jonathan Rea; like the Manufacturers' World Championship given the 122 points that divide Kawasaki from Ducati.
Although with 250 points still to be awarded anything could happen.