MCN’s top five WSB races: 4th

Five different riders on four different makes of machinery won WSB races in 2014 which made the job of picking the top five of the year far from easy – and entirely opinion-based. But here’s MCN’s pick of the pops best from the 24 contests that made up the 2014 season.

Imola: Round 4, Race 1

Finishing Order: Rea, Davies, Sykes

Three wise throttle monkeys from the UK huddled together on the podium at Imola, which makes it a top five hit for MCN readers.

Imola is not the safest WSB venue there is but in terms of atmosphere this is the one where Italian history, passion and sheer lust for racing life meet to greatest effect.

This year, however, the tricolore of the winners’ colours flying over the park life crowd were not in blocks of green, white and red, but crosses of red, white and blue.

In race one that meant three union jacks all in a row, as Northern Irishman Rea, Welshman Davies and Englishman Sykes bestrode the podium on three different types of bike.

Honda man Rea underlined his class and quality with a first-to-last win by 4.5 seconds from Davies and JR would follow it up with another victory in race two.

Davies’ day would get even better as he gave Ducati a double podium at the circuit closest to their hearts and homes.  

Sykes was less happy to be third at a track where he has had the knack of winning before, but a podium is a podium in anybody’s money.