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/824646
IN THE WIND P36 tion. I couldn't keep the pace, otherwise I could have been a bit closer. It's been quite a hard weekend for us, but it's behind us now and hopefully we will get back in the right direction at Donington Park." In the championship Rea leads by 74, with 235 points to Davies' 161. Sykes is a very close third with 160 and Me- landri's race-two slide leaves him fourth on 124. Despite some issues this year at times, Lowes is fifth, with 94. WorldSSP Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puc- cetti Racing) reached a mile- stone in his career after chalking up his 40th career race win at Imola, extending his already class-topping record in a close fight—on a day that dragged on seemingly forever. A delayed start (due to spilled fluids) and then two subsequent red flag incidents—two involving one-time championship leader Roberto Rolfo (Team Factory Vamag MV Agusta)—caused the race to be postponed until after the second Superbike race of the weekend. In the final running, then scheduled for 11-laps at 2:20 p.m., as opposed to its first attempted to go over 17 laps at 11:30 a.m., Sofuoglu went from fifth to the front after three laps and held of the close attentions of Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha) for the win. Sofuoglu had to resort to semi-used tires in the end, as all the starts and restarts had used up his fresh allocation. "It was not easy especially as the many red flags gave us a hard time," said the most successful WorldSSP rider in history. "Final- ly for the race, I had no new rear tires left to use. But I told myself 'no excuses, no complaints, just go for the win.' I worked very hard to stay at the front with a good pace. I am especially happy for the team because it is an Italian round and therefore a home round for them." Mahias is still the convincing championship leader, but So- fuoglu jumped up to fourth place after only finishing two races this year, but they were both wins. On third place, PJ Jacobsen scored an important podium to go with his Superpole win on Saturday. He was only 1.573 seconds behind Sofuoglu and just over a second from Mahias. In the championship Mahias leads the way with 85 points, Morais has 58, Jacobsen 55 and Sofuoglu 50. Gordon Richie WorldSBK RACE 1: 1. Chaz Davies (Duc) 2. Jonathan Rea (Kaw) 3. Marco Melandri (Duc) 4. Tom Sykes (Kaw) 5. Xavi Fores (Duc) RACE 2: 1. Chaz Davies (Duc) 2. Jonahtan Rea (Kaw) 3. Tom Sykes (Kaw) 4. Xavi Fores (Duc) 5. Marco Melandri (Duc) WorldSSP 1. Kenan Sofuoglu (Kaw) 2. Lucas Mahias (Yam) 3. PJ Jacobsen (MV) 4. Sheridan Morais (Yam) 5. Kyle Smith (Hon) Kenan Sofuoglu reached a career milestone by winning his 40th WorldSSP race.