05/04/09 - Valencia podium gives Sofuoglu championship lead
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Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s Kenan Sofuoglu climbed the podium in today’s third round World Supersport championship race at Valencia, Spain, finishing in third place behind Cal Crutchlow and fellow Honda-mounted Anthony West.
Starting from eleventh place on the grid, Sofuoglu shot into the lead at the start of the race before dropping down to sixth, after a brief shower had delayed the start, leaving the 4.005km Ricardo Tormo circuit damp in places.
Riding the new Honda CBR600RR, Sofuoglu battled in the leading trio for most of the race before settling for another solid points haul and joint first place at the top of the championship table with Crutchlow.
The Turkish rider’s Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate and reigning Supersport world champion, Andrew Pitt, struggled throughout the race to get a good feeling from his bike and finished in thirteenth place.
Kenan Sofuoglu – P3
That was not such a bad result after the bad qualification we had yesterday. It’s been a very tough weekend so, at the end of the race, I just took the points that were on offer. Last night and again this morning, my crew tried hard to find something for me, so big thanks to them for this result. I knew it would be difficult to win but they gave me the chance to reach the podium. We will work on the new bike some more now and hopefully arrive at Assen with a better feeling and try to win again.
Andrew Pitt – P13
Whether you call it damage limitation or whatever, it’s very disappointing. I felt we’d made a bit of progress this morning in warm-up after a difficult day yesterday. But in the race today, I had no real feeling and found it difficult to turn the bike. In the early laps when it was still a bit wet, I couldn’t really tell what the rear was doing and I had some shifting problems, too. As the track dried, I just couldn’t turn on the throttle out of corners and had to wait until I was nearly upright before I got on the gas. We’ve got some work to do before Assen, but I know the team will get it sorted.
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
After yesterday it was easy to conclude that we had some problems, but we did a lot of work through the night on suspension and general set-up. This morning in warm-up, both riders reported a positive feeling so we’re very happy to see Kenan on the podium. We’ll have to analyse the data to see what happened with Andrew because he clearly had a completely different feeling to this morning. Anyway, now we go to Assen and our home race, so we’ll be working hard for another positive result there.
2009 World Supersport championship, round three – Valencia, Spain
4.005km, 23 laps – results:
1 Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Yamaha 38’15.613s
2 Anthony West (AUS) Honda) +0.171s
3 Kenan Sofuoglu (TUR) Hannspree ten Kate Honda +8.408s
4 Mark Aitchison (AUS) Honda +12.421s
5 Katsuaki Fujiwara (JPN) Kawasaki +16.529s
6 Matthieu Lagrive (FRA) Honda +19.242s
13 Andrew Pitt (AUS) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda
Championship points after three of 14 rounds:
Sofuoglu 54, Crutchlow 54, Eugene Laverty (IRL) Honda 43, Pitt 43, West 43, Lagrive 25, Aitchison 24.
Next round: Assen, Netherlands – 24-26 April