Race 1Ben Spies took his 12th win of the season at the Nurburgring track after battling with rival Noriyuki Haga and the win closed the championship gap to two points.
The Japanese rider started fast and took the lead, but Spies after overtaking Jonathan Rea, who would finish fourth, battled it out over several laps and then overtook Haga on lap 10.
The Xerox Ducati made a small error on the 17th lap and the Texas Terror won the first race by 3.
85 seconds.
Third place went to Carlos Checa and fifth went to Aprilia’s Max Biaggi, sixth to Leon Haslam, while Haga’s team mate Michel Fabrizio finished in seventh.
Troy Corser took eighth place after running for most of the race in fourth .
Race 1 was red flagged on the opening lap after a horrific accident.
John Hopkins went down with Broc Parkes and Makoto Tamada.
Hopkins and Tamada required medical attention on track and later were both taken to the local hospital for suspected concussions.
Ben Spies: “It was a good race, I didn’t get a great start and I lost a little bit of time to get past Rea, while Nori got away a little bit and I really had to move to catch him.
When I got Nori we passed and re-passed.
It was tough because he was extremely fast in the first section.
The bike started moving around quite a bit and then with three laps to go it was time to put the hammers down and go.
”Noriyuki Haga: “I’m not so happy, I wanted to win and I felt sure I could win that race.
I tried to overtake Ben everywhere but in some parts he was quicker than me and in some parts my bike was quicker than his, but I couldn’t get past him, he was a little faster than me so I had to settle for second place.
”Carlos Checa: “Yesterday qualifying wasn’t so good but we knew we had a good pace and a good feeling with the bike.
I didn’t feel so well this weekend either.
My start wasn’t good, but we had the pace during the race.
And starting from behind it was fun, a good fight until the end with Johnny.
So it’s quite positive and I’m very happy.
”Race 1 Results:1 19 Spies B.
(USA) Yamaha YZF R12 41 Haga N.
(JPN) Ducati 1098R3 7 Checa C.
(ESP) Honda CBR1000RR4 65 Rea J.
(GBR) Honda CBR1000RR5 3 Biaggi M.
(ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory6 91 Haslam L.
(GBR) Honda CBR1000RR7 84 Fabrizio M.
(ITA) Ducati 1098R8 11 Corser T.
(AUS) BMW S1000 RR9 66 Sykes T.
(GBR) Yamaha YZF R110 67 Byrne S.
(GBR) Ducati 1098R11 14 Lagrive M.
(FRA) Honda CBR1000RR12 31 Muggeridge K.
(AUS) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K913 96 Smrz J.
(CZE) Ducati 1098R14 9 Kiyonari R.
(JPN) Honda CBR1000RR15 71 Kagayama Y.
(JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K916 99 Scassa L.
(ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R17 25 Salom D.
(ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R18 88 Resch R.
(AUT) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9DNF: 56 Nakano S.
(JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 10 Nieto F.
(ESP) Ducati 1098R 94 Checa D.
(ESP) Yamaha YZF R1 77 Iannuzzo V.
(ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 47 Cooper R.
(GBR) BMW S1000 RR 23 Parkes B.
(AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 15 Baiocco M.
(ITA) Ducati 1098R Race 2Jonathan Rea won his second career race in the World Superbike series in race 2 with a new lap record, but it was Noriyuki Haga’s crash that changed the championship with Ben Spies now taking the points lead with 364 against Haga’s 336.
Haga went down while battling with Rea for the lead of the race when they made contact on lap five, with their lines crossing, as the Japanese rider ran wide before coming back onto line just as Rea was trying to slip in.
Ben Spies took second place after passing Leon Haslam who started to fade as the race progressed and ended up in fifth.
Third place went again to Carlos Checa who got to the head of the race in lap 3, but had to bow out to his team mate Rea and Ben Spies.
Max Biaggi this time to took fourth but was more than three seconds from Checa.
Troy Corser was finished sixth place finish up two places from race 1.
Ryuichi Kiyonari came in a surprising seventh after making his way up from 18th on the grid passing both Tom Sykes and a struggling Michel Fabrizio in the final part of the race and Yukio Kagayama closed the top ten.
Jonathan Rea: “I tried to ride my own race and mind my own business.
I got a really bad start and had to get a bit aggressive with people in turn 1 because I had to regroup and come from a long way back.
I had to put moves down quick, because I really messed up race 1 which was all my fault.
We changed nothing in between, my guys sat me down and explained exactly what I had to do to win.
I gave it all today, the package was really strong.
”Ben Spies: “The track was a lot cooler and it was definitely much quicker.
I didn’t get off the line good and a bunch of people came round me in turn 1 and I lost almost two seconds to the lead.
I came up to the front but by the time I got there I just didn’t quite have the rear grip to get out of the corners in the last five laps.
Johnny was not making any mistakes so hats off to him for winning.
It wasn’t my race, but we’ve got the championship lead now.
”Carlos Checa: “I did such a really great start I couldn’t believe it! Then I had a fight with Haga and Johnny passed me, he was quite strong.
I tried to follow him until the end when I lost some metres.
Ben also had some good pace and I saw that it was impossible to keep his pace but anyway third place is a good result for me and the team.
”Race 2 Results:1 65 Rea J.
(GBR) Honda CBR1000RR2 19 Spies B.
(USA) Yamaha YZF R13 7 Checa C.
(ESP) Honda CBR1000RR4 3 Biaggi M.
(ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory5 91 Haslam L.
(GBR) Honda CBR1000RR6 11 Corser T.
(AUS) BMW S1000 RR7 9 Kiyonari R.
(JPN) Honda CBR1000RR8 66 Sykes T.
(GBR) Yamaha YZF R19 84 Fabrizio M.
(ITA) Ducati 1098R10 71 Kagayama Y.
(JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K911 96 Smrz J.
(CZE) Ducati 1098R12 10 Nieto F.
(ESP) Ducati 1098R13 23 Parkes B.
(AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R14 99 Scassa L.
(ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R15 77 Iannuzzo V.
(ITA) Honda CBR1000RR16 15 Baiocco M.
(ITA) Ducati 1098R17 25 Salom D.
(ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R18 94 Checa D.
(ESP) Yamaha YZF R1 DNF: 47 Cooper R.
(GBR) BMW S1000 RR31 Muggeridge K.
(AUS) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 88 Resch R.
(AUT) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 67 Byrne S.
(GBR) Ducati 1098R 41 Haga N.
(JPN) Ducati 1098R 14 Lagrive M.
(FRA) Honda CBR1000RR 56 Nakano S.
(JPN) Aprilia RSV4 FactoryThe next Superbike round will be at Imola the 27th of September.
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