Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/319200
WORLD SUPERBIKE WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 5/MAY 25, 2014 DONINGTON PARK/DONINGTON PARK, ENGLAND P68 MAGIC MIKE'S KEY At the beginning of the year there were lots of potential winning bikes and riders in World Supersport and so far they have all had a chance to win more than once. And now there is a top rider club of a bigger size and shape than many imagined. And it is headed by the lanky talent that is Pata Honda's Michael van Der Mark and at Donington he had one of those races that is becoming his specialty: Coming from behind the obvious leaders and then taking off. "It has been amazing because all weekend we were really fast and yesterday we took pole position in the wet," he said after his second win of the season. "In the race my start was not really good and also in the first few laps I struggled with grip. Late on in the race, when I got my own pace, I was faster and faster and I caught the group in front. I passed them one at a time, but when I managed to pass them all I couldn't go away. The last few laps were a nice fight with Jules Cluzel, although I made a few mistakes." He nearly ran away all on his own but he dragged along the ever-combative Jules Cluzel and his MV Agusta RC Yakhnichm, the Frenchman having a dramatic and demon- strative race from start to finish. Not quite as dramatic as Mahi Racing Team India's Ke- nan Sofuoglu who had another technical problem with his bike in morning warm-up, followed by a bizarre end to his long leading stint ahead of Kev Coghlan, Cluzel, Lorenzo Zanetti. With Sofuoglu keeping his own pace out front, Zanetti pushed past Coghlan into Coppice on lap four, as the front group squeezed up to feature five riders – Sofuoglu, Zanet- ti, Coghlan, the fast American PJ Jacobson and Cluzel. After a rider crashed at the Foggy Esses, there was debris on track, but the race was not stopped. Cluzel put his hand up to draw attention, but nobody else cared and carried on. On lap 10 there was smoke from Sofuoglu's bike, who slowed to look down, as Coghlan went into the lead. The smoke was caused – bizarrely – by some track debris that had got wedged between Sofuoglu's front wheel and bodywork – hence the smoke and smell. With Sofuo- glu's litany of problems on his bike in 2014, his confidence is shot and he was unable to get back to the lead once he realized the problem – unknown to him at that time – had cleared. Loris Baz battled with his teammate Sykes in both races, but came up short and had to be content with two second-place finishes.