FIM Supersport World Championship Assen, Netherlands April 29, 2007 Race Results: 1. Kenan SOFUOGLU (Hon CBR600RR), 21 laps, 36:04.418 2. Andrew PITT (Hon CBR600RR), -4.043 seconds 3. Fabien FORET (Kaw ZX-6R), -5.479 seconds 4. Barry VENEMAN (Suz GSX-R600), -8.140 seconds 5. David SALOM (Yam YZF-R6), -8.900 seconds 6. Sebastien CHARPENTIER (Hon CBR600RR), -11.090 seconds 7. David CHECA (Yam YZF-R6), -14.847 seconds 8. Vesa KALLIO (Suz GSX-R600), -19.545 seconds 9. Davide GIUGLIANO (Kaw ZX-6R), -19.880 seconds 10. Steve MARTIN (Yam YZF-R6), -20.084 seconds 11. Lorenzo ALFONSI (Hon CBR600RR), -21.940 seconds 12. Pere RIBA (Kaw ZX-6R), -26.792 seconds 13. Simone SANNA (Hon CBR600RR), -36.477 seconds 14. Massimo ROCCOLI (Yam YZF-R6), -37.156 seconds 15. Arie VOS (Hon CBR600RR), -39.459 seconds 16. Chris PERIS (Yam YZF-R6), -39.985 seconds 17. Vladimir IVANOV (Yam YZF-R6), -40.163 seconds 18. Gianluca VIZZIELLO (Yam YZF-R6), -41.140 seconds 19. Javier FORES (Hon CBR600RR), -45.772 seconds 20. Craig JONES (Hon CBR600RR), -53.145 seconds 30. Broc PARKES (Yam YZF-R6), -2 laps, DNF, crash 31. Sebastien GIMBERT (Yam YZF-R6), -4 laps, DNF, mechanical 34. Gianluca NANNELLI (Duc 749R), -19 laps, DNF, crash 37. Katsuaki FUJIWARA (Hon CBR600RR), -21 laps, DNF, crash Supersport World Championship Point Standings (After 4 of 13 races): 1. Sofuoglu, 120 points 2. Foret, 67 points 3. Fujiwara, 43 points 4. Pitt, 40 points 5. Harms, 39 points 6. TIE, Veneman/Nannelli, 30 points 8. Roccoli, 28 points 9. TIE, Parkes/Salom, 27 points 11. Riba, 26 points 12. TIE, Kevin Curtain/Jones, 25 points 14. Charpentier, 23 points 15. Giugliano, 21 points More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: HANNspree Ten Kate Honda secure second Supersport one-two HANNspree Ten Kate Honda dominated the World Supersport race once again today with another spectacular one-two finish. Kenan Sofuolgu secured his fourth race win of the 2007 series while temporary wingman Andrew Pitt crossed the finish line in second place. Returning rider Sébastien Charpentier put in an admirable performance to secure sixth position. The majority of this afternoon’s race was a fierce and incredibly close battle between the three HANNspree Ten Kate Honda riders, Fabien Foret and Broc Parkes. The five riders swapped places numerous times and for six of the 21 laps, the top three spots were held my Sofuoglu, Pitt and Charpentier. On lap eight, Sofuoglu secured the lead and made it stick. The Turkish rider proceeded to open the gap between himself and the chasing pack with every lap, setting a new Assen record three times before securing his victory. The success leaves Sofuoglu with a 120-point lead in the standings – a huge 53 points ahead of nearest rival Fabien Foret. With Sébastien Charpentier suffering after his month-long break, the fight for second place was between Pitt, Foret and Parkes. The Assen crowd enjoyed a thrilling display from the three riders, before Parkes crashed out on the penultimate lap. A mistake by Foret then enabled Pitt to pass the Frenchman and maintain station to secure a second podium finish for HANNspree Ten Kate Honda. Ronald ten Kate, Team Manager: “At the beginning of the race we were close to perfection with the three riders up at the front. Anyway, I am more than happy with the final result. Another first for Kenan is just splendid. This is actually the circuit where it all started last year when he delivered his first win. It just shows what a great racer he is becoming. Andrew did a perfect job for us yet again as the wingman. He had quite a big battle with Fabien Foret in the last laps but he got the second place for us. Sébastien was very brave at the beginning of the race, but towards the end he started to have some problems. However, he has shown how good his race pace is and in the next round he should be back on top form once again.” Kenan Sofuoglu: “I am really, really happy! To get pole position yesterday was good, but most of the fast riders are back so I knew it would be a lot harder this weekend. I was expecting this race to be a difficult. I told myself in the beginning not to go hard straight away. I gave myself a chance to look who was coming up behind me and then I knew when to push a bit more. When I knew the riders were closing in behind me I thought ‘ok, now I will go’ and tried hard to open up the gap. I did my fastest lap time in lap 15 so I’m really pleased that. This is just such a good result – I got my first race win here at Assen and with it being the home track for the Ten Kate it is even more special – it just couldn’t have been any better for me today!” Sébastien Charpentier: “Again after injury I have no power in my body. I had to ride my bike in the race holding on with my fingers and it was impossible for me to stay in the leading group. My body just said no after a while. I think I got the maximum we could today but I feel for everyone in the team who works so hard to give me a good bike.” Andrew Pitt: “I’m really pleased – what a great result for the team and a great day overall! It was a tough race – I had a really good rhythm at the start and I just kept up at the front. Kenan’s riding really well at the moment and I had a good time riding with him. I made him work for it a bit today, it wasn’t so easy for him as in Valencia! I’m happy to be on the podium again and happy to be able to help the team out again.” More, from a press release issued by Honda: SOFUOGLU ONCE MORE THE YOUNG DUTCH MASTER Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) continued his remarkable 2007 season with another impressive win in the Supersport class, despite having to fight hard at some stages of the race. Once more he proved to have the advantage over full distance, leading 17 of the 21 laps. His latest race win, the fourth in five attempts this year, now puts him on a points total of 120, 53 points ahead of his nearest competitor Fabien Foret, who was third today. Just to make his weekend perfect, after taking pole on Saturday, Kenan also left Assen with the new lap record, 1’42.096, to go with his new Supersport track best of 1’41.144 seconds in qualifying. Honda has a 43-point lead in the Manufacturers’ Championship now, after only five of 13 rounds. Andrew Pitt (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) was once more the perfect riding partner to help Sofuoglu’s championship push, finishing second in the race after qualifying seventh on Saturday. He is now fourth overall, having scored two second places in two races. Reigning champion Sebastien Charpentier (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) was back in race action and played a major part in the early race and qualifying, until he had to slip back due to fatigue, ending his day sixth. Katsuaki Fujiwara (Althea Honda Team CBR600RR) was rammed out of contention for points once more, but is still third in the series. His team-mate Lorenzo Alfonsi (Althea Honda Team CBR600RR) earned an 11th place in the race, after a lowly qualifying result saw him start from row five. Sofuoglu’s season continues to dazzle and the runaway leader gave was particularly pleased to have won again in his Ten Kate team’s home country. “To get pole position yesterday was good, but most of the fast riders are back so I knew it would be a lot harder this weekend,” said Sofuoglu. “I was expecting this race to be a difficult. I told myself in the beginning not to go hard straight away. I gave myself a chance to see who was coming up behind me and then I knew when to push a bit more. When I knew the riders were closing in behind me I thought ‘OK, now I will go’, and pushed hard to open up the gap. I did my fastest lap time on lap 15 so I’m really pleased with that. This is just such a good result – I got my first race win here at Assen and with it being the home track for the Ten Kate team, it is even more special – it just couldn’t have been any better for me today.” Pitt was once more delighted to be part of a team that allowed him to push from first to last, and he heaped praise on his team-mate Sofuoglu. “I’m really pleased – what a great result for the team and a great day overall,” said Pitt. “It was a tough race; I had a really good rhythm at the start so I just tried to keep up at the front. Kenan’s riding really well at the moment and I had a great time racing with him. I made him work for it a bit today; it wasn’t so easy for him as in Valencia! I’m happy to be on the podium again and happy to be able to help the team out again.” Charpentier was in superb form for most of the race but his physical condition determined how his raceday would finally turn out, after qualifying second fastest on Saturday. He is now 14th in the championship. “Again after injury I have no power in my body,” said Sebastien. “I had to ride my bike in the race holding on with my fingers and it was impossible for me to stay in the leading group. My body just said no after a while. I think I got the maximum we could today but I feel for everyone in the team who works so hard to give me a good bike.” Fujiwara retains third in the championship, on an unchanged 43 points, despite his enforced crash on the opening lap, the second one in as many race weekends. He had qualified eighth, and was confident in his race set-up. “I was on the outside, on the right line and when I closed the gas to turn another rider just rammed me from the back,” said Fujiwara afterwards. “It was Impossible! It was a really big crash but all I have is a large abrasion on my right leg. I was stuck between the two bikes as we ran off track, so I was unlucky to crash – but I was incredibly lucky not have worse injury. I am still third, so that is very important.” Alfonsi’s Sunday was an improvement on his qualifying position of 18th. “I had a normal start, we did a very good job on the bike with the mechanics and we chose very good tyres,” said Alfonsi. “I had a good performance all race and I was 11th at the end. Not so bad and we are developing step-by-step.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Yamaha put up a spirited fight but are unlucky Everything was looking positive today for the Yamaha World Supersport Team when on the penultimate lap Parkes crashed out while in second, dashing the teams hopes of a podium finish. Up until that point the young Australian had been having a great race and was looking very strong. With Parkes crashed out it was left up to Steve Martin to grab six points for the team’s championship cause. Broc got a good start from third and found himself in a race-long battle at the front between Sofuoglu, Pitt, Foret and Charpentier. A fierce fight with Charpentier on lap eight saw Parkes challenging for third position with the riders swapping places every turn but he was unable to maintain the pace and moved back to fifth place when Foret overtook. He settled in fifth for the middle part of the race waiting for the last few laps before making a charge on lap 17. It was on lap 20 that Parkes lost the front going into the left-hand bend of Strubben corner and crashed out. Martin had an unlucky start off the line from sixth place and went down to 14th. He then spent the remainder of the race trying to make up places and succeeded in overtaking to tenth place. This was a good achievement considering the rider had only had three hours on the bike since being taken on as a replacement rider for Kevin Curtain last week. After Parkes’ crash Sofuoglu went on to win the race with Pitt behind in second and Foret in third. Roccoli had a disappointing result today after a very good weekend of practice and qualifying. Having qualified fifth the rider then struggled in the race due to a wrong tyre choice and had to settle for the points rather than the race win. He finished in 14th. Having come to Assen fifth in the championship Parkes goes into the sixth round in two weeks in ninth place with 27 points and everything to work for. Yamaha also had a very good result today in the FIM Superstock 600 Cup with eight R6-shod riders finishing in the top ten. Steve Martin (10th – Yamaha World Supersport Team) “I got a very bad start and just couldn’t come back from there. I got stuck in a group and didn’t feel I had enough rear grip to really push it or brake hard. I wanted to be more aggressive but there wasn’t much I could do. If I had to do that race again I would try and get more rear grip – that was the only problem on an otherwise good bike and set up. The team has been really good to work with all weekend, I’m sorry I couldn’t re-pay their efforts with a higher end result.” Broc Parkes (DNF – Yamaha World Supersport Team) “I got away okay at the start and found myself in a big battle with the front runners. Some of the Honda guys in that group were very committed and I was just trying to avoid being taken out. I did my best to conserve my tyres and then make a late charge at the end. The problem was I wasn’t confident in the front brakes and I lost the front as I started to push harder. I’m gutted to crash out of second place.” Massimo Roccoli (14th – Yamaha Team Italia) “I decided to try a medium rear tyre in the race which was a gamble and didn’t work because the tarmac temperature was lower today than yesterday. I was very fast at the beginning of the race but after the first three laps the rear tyre was finished. The second half of the race was very difficult and I focused on just finishing in order to provide the team some more data to work from.”