From the start of the battle at the intense Laguna Seca circuit the action was close and combative. Overtakes were put in between the leading trio at the largely one-line circuit but on lap five podium challenger Chaz Davies fell and was unable to restart.
When the shadowing figure of Davide Giugliano also fell from third place the fight was on between Jonathan and Tom for the victory on their new model Ninja ZX-10R machines. Rea eased out his lead after re-passing Sykes with five laps to go. Pushing on in the dry but windy conditions, Jonathan recorded his eighth win of the season and the 37th of his career. His latest victory kept his 100% podium finishing record intact in the best possible way.
With Sykes close behind him at the flag Rea still extended his championship lead over his team-mate to 71 points - 368 to 297 - with one more race to come on Sunday at Laguna, before the start of the long summer break.
Earlier on Saturday Sykes had won Superpole to earn his seventh pole position starting place of the year, and the 37th of his career. Rea had qualified only 0.055 seconds behind and was second on the grid.
Jonathan Rea, stated: “I am super happy to have won here and now that we have had 25 laps on the bike in race conditions we have good information for tomorrow, to try and improve again. I am happy with the result but it was, honestly, not my most beautiful race because I made quite a lot of mistakes. I am sure when I watch it back I will be quite upset with myself but the most important thing is the 25 points for winning. That is good for everything - for the morale of the team and the championship. We have one more race tomorrow and it will be important to do a good job then before the start of the eight week summer break.”
Tom Sykes, stated: “I think overall we had a fairly good bike set up but we just struggled with the last part of the turns and over 25-laps it adds up. I had to compensate in some other areas and that was not ideal, especially in the windy conditions. I think I am happy enough and I could not do anything more. Jonathan rode a good race and we just couldn’t get that extra little bit. We need to find a small change in the set-up tomorrow to improve in one area. Overall, I was happy with the performance at the start of the race and made some good lap times in the windy conditions. I think we have room for improvement tomorrow. Second is the best we could do today and second is not a disaster! We can build on this.”
Behind the KRT podium riders Anthony West (Pedercini Racing Kawasaki) was 12th and scored valuable points. Roman Ramos (Team GOELEVEN Kawasaki) was also in the points in 15th place, with Dominic Schmitter (Grillini Racing Team Kawasaki) just one place behind. Neither Saeed Al Sulaiti (Pedercini Racing Kawasaki) nor Gianluca Vizziello (Grillini Racing Team Kawasaki) finished the race; Vizziello with a technical issue and Sulaiti fell at the infamous Corkscrew corner.