24 February 2013 Sofuoglu makes a winning start with Kawasaki Mahi Racing Team

Kenan Sofuoglu won a reduced distance 15-lap Supersport World Championship race in Australia and in doing so set a new lap record and extended his total of WSS race wins to a new all-time best of 22.
Kenan swapped the lead often and fought almost all race long with the British rider Sam Lowes, whom he finally beat by 1.899 seconds after a brilliant late display of pure pace, breaking the lap record over and over near the end. His new lap record of 1'33.283 was set on the very last lap.

The fight for fourth place finally went to Kawasaki Mahi Racing Team India rider Fabien Foret, despite a dreadful start that saw him fight back from 14th place in race one. He was battered and bruised from a big practice fall but gritted his teeth to leave Australia fourth in the standings. A great day in many ways for the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R saw both Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpress riders,

David Salom and Luca Scassa, finish fifth and sixth respectively, despite each having their own hand injuries to contend with. Team Go Eleven Kawasaki rider Alessandro Antonelli was seventh, putting five Kawasaki machines in the top seven places. Vladimir Ivanov (Kawasaki DMC-Lorenzini Team) posted 11th place and Kevin Coghlan (Kawasaki DMC-Lorenzini Team) was 18th, just out of the points.

Kenan Sofuoglu: “It all worked out very well in the end. Sam Lowes did a good job all weekend and it was not easy to catch him, but we kept working to find the way to save the tyre for 15 laps and in the morning warm-up I did not give up. This morning I told mechanics we should do it in the warm-up and show everyone we could do it in the race. Warm-up was good and also the race - the last three or four laps especially.

The plan was to give it everything and the lap times was almost at qualification pace for those last three laps. I was happy because the team were working very well and the bike also. The Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R is still the best bike in Supersport. Everybody thought after the qualifying that another bike would come and beat everyone else but Kawasaki power is still there and it is a great package for the full race.”


Fabien Foret: “At the beginning I got left on the line because I did not put it in first gear, not properly anyway. I came back well and I just rode as hard as I could and tried to enjoy it. I am hurting a lot but on the bike it is not too bad. I had a big crash in practice and I am just stiff and sore but that is not the big issue when on the bike.”

David Salom: “I had a very big accident in practice so I was surprise to be able to race and then I surprised that I could finish inside the top five. For me it was a good race and a good weekend with the bike, if we forget the fact that I was riding with an injured little finger on my right hand. We made a recovery and we should have a strong result and at the next round at Motorland.”

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