IN
THE
WIND
P38
two by enforced injury absence
and once when another rider
took him out before the flag.
In the past three races since
then, he has scored three wins.
He has also scored the last
three wins at Donington Park in
the WorldSSP class.
After the hideous amounts of
red flags at the previous round
in Imola, the lone Sunday red
flag at Donington was kept for
the WorldSSP riders. A blown
engine for an MV Agusta was
the reason and the restarted
race was over 13 laps.
The winner was determined
early on as Sofuoglu rode a
lonely race, like he had been
doing in the first attempted start.
Behind, the warring Frenchmen
Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha
WorldSSP) and Jules Cluzel (CIA
Landlords Insurance Honda)
swapped positions on the final
lap, with the championship
leader Mahias making his final
move stick to rack up another
20 points.
Behind them, two Triumph
riders were giving it their best
at a circuit not that far from their
spiritual home.
Luke Stapleford and Jack
Kennedy (Profile Racing) were
locked in combat for most of
the restart, with Stapleford first
home in fourth place.
The luckless pole man Patrick
Jacobsen (MV Agusta Reparto
Corse) could not make the re-
start after his engine went bang
in the first running, and he was
not able to appear in the podium
fights with his Nicky Hayden
helmet, worn in memory of his
friend and countryman.
"This was kind of a special
race, especially doing it with
Nicky's replica helmet, so a
podium would have been great
to seal the story, but it is disap-
pointing because we had a tech-
nical problem," Jacobsen said.
"I am not sure what happened
but it does not look like it is very
good, so we could not start
the second race. It really sucks
because, even though I got a
bad start in the second race, I
think the pace would have been
okay for me, and I know my way
around here."
In the championship fight
Mahias still leads, and even
Sofuoglu said Mahias should
be champion. Given that, there
is a lot of work still to be done,
even if the championship just hit
halfway at Donington.
Mahias has 105 points, Sofuo-
glu is now second at 75, Morais
is third with 68 and Cluzel fifth
with 55.
Gordon Richie
WorldSBK
RACE 1
1. Tom Sykes (Kaw)
2. Leon Haslam (Kaw)
3. Alex Lowes (Yam)
4. Marco Melandri (Duc)
5. Michael van der Mark (Yam)
RACE 2
1. Jonathan Rea (Kaw)
2. Tom Sykes (Kaw)
3. Chaz Davies (Duc)
4. Michael van der Mark (Yam)
5. Alex Lowes (Yam)
WorldSSP
1. Kenan Sofuoglu (Kaw)
2. Lucas Mahias (Yam)
3. Jules Cluzel (Hon)
4. Luke Stapleford (Tri)
5. Jack Kennedy (Tri)
Sofuoglu rode every lap
"like a Superpole" to take a
dominant win in WorldSSP.
