VOL. 52 ISSUE 19 MAY 12, 2015 P81
has won eight of the 10 races
this season so far. He has taken
second place in the other two,
leaving him only 10 points shy
of a perfect 250. Rea's now
won even more career World
Superbike races than his team-
mate, 2013 World Superbike
Champion, Tom Sykes, with 23
to Sykes' 22.
After his main champion-
ship rival, Aprilia Racing Red
Devils' Leon Haslam had his
worst weekend of the year so
far—fourth in race one and a 155
mph-plus highside non-finish
in race two—Rea leapt from
a mere 50 points ahead to a
new advantage of 87. Even with
eight rounds remaining, this is
a mountain range to climb for
anybody.
"The key to the weekend was
working hard with Pere [Riba]
and Paolo [Marchetti] Friday and
Saturday to make sure we had
a package we could fight with,"
Rea said of his and Kawasaki's
ability to dominate so much
at Imola. "We were far ahead
Briefly...
Niccolo Canepa found gainful em-
ployment in the Grillini Kawasaki
WSB Team after his Hero EBR squad
found EBR to be bankrupt and un-
able to continue support in 2015. He
did not have the happiest intro, fin-
ishing Superpole 20th.
Pre-Imola Musical chairs was a new
game for all, as 19-year-old rookie
rider Christophe Ponsson left Grilli-
ni Kawasaki for the Kawasaki Peder-
cini Team, and previous incumbent
Javier Alviz left all together.
Kenan Sofuoglu rode for his Kawa-
saki Puccetti Racing World Super-
sport squad at Imola although only a
few days before his seven-week-old
son Hamza suffered bleeding in the
brain and had to be taken to hospital
to have an operation. He released a
statement on Friday to explain why
he was racing when he had originally
decided not to, and to explain his
son's situation, after Hamza survived
an operation and showed what Ke-
nan and his family felt were signs of
recovery.
even by the determined PJ Jacobsen
on the Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyex-
pres machine, who had to accept a
fourth place and not the podium he
had planned. He remained second
in the championship, but Sofuoglu
made a big gap wider with a lead of 37
points leaving Imola.
Full season rookie and former Eu-
ropean Superstock 600 great Marco
Faccani pushed his way to fifth, but
he was slightly disappointed as he
felt he could have had a podium to go
along with his top three
qualifying.
Honda riders in
general found Imola a dif-
ficult place to deal with,
and found each other
very tough nuts as Core
Motorsport Thailand's
Ratthapark Wilairot and
CIA landlords Insurance's
Gino Rea battled so hard
near the end that Rea got
tire marks on his leathers.
continued on next page
For Kenan Sofuoglu there was no other option
but winning last weekend at Imola.
