VOL. 53 ISSUE 13 APRIL 5, 2016 P23
SOFU THE MAGNIFICENT IN WORLDSSP
I
t took until the third race of the
year but Kenan Sofuoglu (Ka-
wasaki Puccetti Racing) did not
disappoint in the style in which
he won his 33rd race victory in
WorldSSP racing at Aragon. He
took his 25th career pole, start-
ed well and headed of to a start-
to-finish race win after 16 laps of
the Kawasaki-friendly Aragon cir-
cuit in great style. It was his third
Motorland win for Kawasaki in
succession.
"I wanted to lead and keep
going because yesterday and
the day before I had a good
pace," said Sofuoglu. "In the
race the goal was to make a
good start and take the lead.
When I saw a two-second gap
I said I should just keep a good
pace. On the last two or three
laps the gap was getting closer.
I just decided to keep the pace,
take 25 points and the plan
worked very well."
Behind him, Sofuoglu's team-
mate Randy Krummenacher
scored second place, closing
in on the number-one bike but
from too far back to win. Another
assured performance after he
and Sofuoglu had endured is-
sues and setup problems earlier
in the weekend.
Third, after a mad WorldSSP
race in some regards (22 rid-
ers finished but 12 did not)
was once again the deserving
privateer Nicolas Terol (Schmidt
Racing MV Agusta). Eighth on
the grid he rode with the class
and maturity of the former top
GP rider he is and held off the
factory bike of Jules Cluzel (MV
Agusta Reparto Corse) in the
final laps.
Cluzel looked like he may go
the way of many other riders
and retire or crash, messaging
his team all was not well at one
stage. He rallied and got up to
fourth.
PJ Jacobsen (Honda World
Supersport Team) crashed out
on lap one, at turn two.
"In turn two Kenan left the
door open and I just went into
the corner and tucked the front,"
Jacobsen said. "It was quite
strange. Maybe I just did not
have enough heat in the right
side of the tire because it is a
pretty long wait from the last
corner since going right."
In the points Krummenacher
leads with 58 ahead of Sofuoglu
(45) and Cluzel (38).
Gordon Richie
Kenan Sofuoglu put in a champion's
ride for his first win of 2016.
