FIM Supersport World Championship Phillip Island, Australia March 1, 2009 Race Results (all on Pirelli tires): 1. Kenan SOFUOGLU (Hon CBR600RR), 21 laps, 33:42.156 2. Andrew PITT (Hon CBR600RR), -0.060 seconds 3. Anthony WEST (Hon CBR600RR), -0.153 4. Cal CRUTCHLOW (Yam YZF-R6), -1.097 seconds 5. Eugene LAVERTY (Hon CBR600RR), -1.098 6. Mark AITCHISON (Hon CBR600RR), -3.631 7. Fabien FORET (Yam YZF-R6), -5.023 8. Joan LASCORZ (Kaw ZX-6R), -9.540 9. Massimo ROCCOLI (Hon CBR600RR), -14.099 10. Gianluca NANNELLI (Tri Daytona 675), -14.202 11. Matthieu LAGRIVE (Hon CBR600RR), -15.110 12. Michele PIRRO (Yam YZF-R6), -15.204 13. Barry VENEMAN (Suz GSX-R600), -15.263 14. Garry MCCOY (Tri Daytona 675), -26.607 15. Robbin HARMS (Hon CBR600RR), -29.707 16. Matej SMRZ (Tri Daytona 675), -29.876 17. Katsuaki FUJIWARA (Kaw ZX-6R), -30.157 18. Patrik VOSTÁREK (Hon CBR600RR), -36.918 19. Russell HOLLAND (Hon CBR600RR), -42.324 20. Jesco GÃœNTHER (Hon CBR600RR), -45.388 More, from a press release issued by Team YZF Yamaha: Doni Tata Pradita: Good warm up, unlucky race On Sunday morning, excellent result for Doni with the 6th time of the warm up session, out of a total of 30 riders. On a wet track he did a very beautiful performance. During the race, he had the bad luck to have an engine problem and he had to retire. The performances of the young Indonesian rider over the weekend were good, but unfortunately the end was not so successful. Doubtless to say that with all the progress he made in Phillip Island (Australia) he will be in a good position for a better weekend for the next race in Qatar. Team-manager Martial Garcia: “Despite the broken engine during the race, the overall weekend has been positive. The rider did very well; the bike had a good level of performance. We will do everything we can and we look for a good result at the next event in Doha.” More, from a press release issued by Parkalgar Honda: Laverty: We can go to Qatar looking for the win PARKALGAR HONDA racer Eugene Laverty diced for the victory at the opening round of the World Supersport Championship, eventually finishing fifth just one-second behind winner Honda’s Kenan Sofuoglu at Phillip Island in Australia. Laverty led the race and was in contention right until the chequered flag. Parkalgar Honda racer Miguel Praia was in 10th place on lap three when he crashed at the Honda Hairpin unhurt. The next round of the Championship is at the Losail circuit in Qatar on Saturday 14th March. Eugene: “I got an average start and was back in ninth but within four laps I was leading the race. My Parkalgar Honda is very fast, I was able to blast past many riders. In a straight line we are fit to pass anyone and it is now handling as good as any other bike, it is looking like it could be a good year. The race is the first time I have done a distance run on the bike and to live with the front runners who had all tested here was great. I made only one error the whole race on the final corner. I touched the dirt and that allowed Cal Crutchlow to pass me and take fourth. I wasn’t expecting to be this close to the front at the opening round, this weekend a race win was not part of my plan it was to achieve the top six. Even when I led it was to try and break the pack up as I knew Andrew and Kenan would come back at me. But now I have a different plan for Qatar and it is to win the race. We have a good haul of points from here, I am happy.” Miguel: “I made a good start to the race and on my second lap I posted 1:35.4secs which was the quickest at the time, the fifth fastest of the race and 2secs faster than my lap time from last year. I was riding well and with confidence but with a full tank of fuel which caused some problems and on lap three I made a mistake and went into the Honda Hairpin too fast and touched with Robin Harms and crashed out unhurt. With the lap time I have proved I can stay with the front runners and maybe even make the top five. My Parkalgar Honda is so good I now need to be not so aggressive in the first laps. Previously I have had to fight hard to get into the points but now I am in a new position and level and I must make a more relaxed start on the first laps, make my position and start from there. I am confident for the coming season.” Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager: “It was a good race with Eugene dicing for the lead. We clearly have one of the fastest bikes out there that is as good as anything and bar a small mistake at the final corner Eugene would have been fourth. He is a Championship contender as we knew he would be and we can build from here. Miguel made a mistake and crashed on lap three. He looked as though he could have scored in the top 10 and is carrying his momentum from testing; now he needs to turn his proven pace into results. Miguel dislikes this track but favours Qatar so we don’t have to wait long to see what he can do there. It’s been a good weekend for the team and everyone has worked very hard and professionally together, well done!” More, from a press release issued by FGSport Group/InFront Motor Sport: FIM Supersport World Championship Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) won a superb opening World Supersport race in a three-way sprint to the line. The Turk, 2007 champion in the category, took the flag ahead of Australian riders Andrew Pitt (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Anthony West (Stiggy Racing Honda). Honda, winners of the mid-range Supersport category for the last seven years, begin the new season with four CBR-RR machines in the top 4 places, with fourth going to Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda) of Ireland. For 24 year-old Sofuoglu, the win is his eleventh in the series, while Honda celebrate their 63rd win out of 117 Supersport races. The Yamahas, which looked good in qualifying, finished fifth in the hands of Cal Crutchlow and seventh with Fabien Foret, who raced with a partially dislocated right shoulder following his crash on Saturday. Spain’s Joan Lascorz made his debut for Kawasaki with an encouraging seventh place. The new Triumph 675 also had a positive start, with Gianluca Nannelli finishing tenth and Garry McCoy fourteenth. Results : 1. Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 33’42.156 (166,18 kph); 2. Pitt A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 0.060; 3. West A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 0.153; 4. Crutchlow C. (GBR)Yamaha YZF R6 1.097; 5 Laverty E. (IRL) Honda CBR600RR 1.098; 6. Aitchison M. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 3.631; 7. Foret F. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 5.023; 8. Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 9.540. Points (after 1 round of 14): 1. Sofuoglu (Honda) 25; 2. Pitt (Honda) 20; 3. West (Honda) 16; 4. Crutchlow (Yamaha) 13; 5. Laverty (Honda) 11; 6. Aitchison (Honda) 10; 7. Foret (Yamaha) 9; 8. Lascorz (Kawasaki) 8. More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider, Kenan Sofuoglu, took victory in today’s opening 2009 World Supersport championship race in Australia. The Turkish rider beat team-mate Andrew Pitt by just six one hundredths of a second after 21 laps of the 4.445km Phillip Island circuit, while Anthony West made it an all-Honda podium with third place. The Ten Kate Honda duo had planned to maintain a relatively slow pace early in the race in order to preserve the rear tyres on their CBR600RRs. But the race turned out to be a thrilling encounter with less than a second covering the top ten riders at the halfway point. However, the leading trio opened a one-second gap from the chasing pack by the end of the race, resulting in a hard-fought battle for the final podium places. Andrew Pitt dedicated his second place to victims of the recent bushfires in Australia and has pledged his prize money to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal Fund. Kenan Sofuoglu winner Andrew went very fast at the beginning while I found myself down in around tenth place. I tried to ride as slowly as possible because we were worried about the rear tyre but I had to ride really hard to get back to the front and to get past Andrew and Anthony. I think Andrew and I actually touched at one point, which probably scared Ronald a bit! But I’m so happy to win, especially after setting the fastest lap in qualifying for pole position yesterday. My team has been fantastic to give me such a good bike and it’s been a great start to the championship. Andrew Pitt second It was a strange old race, really we were riding so slowly for most of it, just to make the tyres last. Everyone was tripping over one another until the last five laps, but that’s what we’ve been working on trying to be there when it really matters. I just found myself in the wrong place going into the final lap but big congratulations to Kenan, he had a great ride today. Ronald ten Kate team manager It’s the best possible start to the season for us and big compliments to the whole technical crew, who have had quite some issues to resolve regarding race set-up and the preservation of the tyres. They and the riders managed this in the best possible way. These results were achieved on the 2008 CBR600RR, so we can’t wait to get to Europe, when we’ll start racing the ’09 model, which we believe will be even stronger. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Top Eight Race Finish For Lascorz WSS, Phillip Island, Australia, 1 March 2009 Joan Lascorz led the first lap of the Phillip Island WSS race on his Provec Motocard.com Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, but could not maintain his early pace. A quite incredible 21-lap World Supersport race saw up to 15 riders in the leading group, even up to and beyond the halfway mark. In the final analysis Lascorz finished a lonely eighth on the all-new 2009 machine, nine seconds from the win. Katsuaki Fujiwara could not get away with the leading group and had to fight hard all through the race, losing his chance of scoring a point by only a few seconds. With so many aspects of machine set-up to finalise this weekend, having not been able to test at Phillip Island like most other top teams last week, the technical staff had to choose a race-set-up for each rider based on a very few hours of track time only. In the wet warm-up session this morning Joan was easily the fastest rider, 2.5 seconds up on his nearest challenger, but the race itself was dry, with an ambient temperature of 18°C. Joan Lascorz: “With the settings we had it was difficult in this race but it was more to do with the speed of the other bikes. The engine is new, we only got it three months ago, and we need more time to work with it. We will have new things in Valencia. The other bikes are already developed to their full potential, so we need more time. In some places, in the beginning of the race, I had some advantages over the Hondas and Yamahas. In other places, I lost time. Our bike is good, and after more work we can understand it a lot better. There are a lot of straights and power places at this track so I could not fight all the way through the race.” Katsuaki Fujiwara: “We changed set-up a little bit this morning and we got chatter everywhere, even in the fast corners, from the first to last lap. It was maybe even worse with a new tyre, and I think it is just down to the fact that we could not test at this track before race weekend. It is a new bike, but it really has great potential.” More, from a press release issued by Team ParkinGo Triumph BE1 Racing: Team ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing leaves Australia with a tenth and fourteenth place scored by Gianluca Nannelli and Garry McCoy respectively. It was an unlucky but useful race that enabled the team to collect some more information regarding bikes and riders’ performance in order to improve future results starting from the Qatar round, in fifteen days time. Garry McCoy went off track when his bike was hit thus preventing him from fighting for a top 5 position while Gianluca Nannelli had a good performance as he managed to pull off a great recovery. Unfortunately, a tyre problem kept him from fighting until the end for a top spot. GARRY McCOY | Triumph Daytona 675 | 14th: “During the early laps I maintained my starting position but when I tried to overtake Roccoli and Veneman my bike got hit and I went off track losing about 15 seconds. Although I tried to get back, my race was compromised. I did my best and grabbed 2 points”. GIANLUCA NANNELLI | Triumph Daytona 675 | 10th: “I had a great feeling with the bike during the race and I was more consistent than in qualfiying. I got a good start and gained a few positions. After six or seven laps I got behind Garry who was fighting for the eighth spot. I kept overtaking and managed to be just one second and two tenths behind the leader when about two thirds of the race was over. Unfortunately, in the last laps the tyres started to deteriorate and I had to set a higher pace to reach the finish line. Nonetheless, this result is a beginning. We have also understood how the bike reacts in race setup and can now set higher goals for the second round, in Qatar”. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Crutchlow and Foret fight hard for points in the first Supersport battle Yamaha World Supersport riders Fabien Foret and Cal Crutchlow fought hard as part of the leading pack in what was an incredibly closely contested race for the opening round of the 2009 season. Both riders took turns to lead the race at times, whilst fighting in an incredibly close battle with Laverty, Pitt, Sofuoglu and West for the top spots. Ultimately two false neutrals in the closing laps saw Crutchlow drop to fourth position, taking valuable points with him to the next round in Qatar. Foret suffered from increasing pain caused by yesterday’s shoulder injury following a highside in qualifying but managed to hold on and score an impressive seventh place. Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team “That was a really close race, really exciting. It has been great for me to come to Phillip Island and come fourth in my first World Supersport race on the Yamaha YZF-R6 although I was a little bit disappointed as I feel I had the potential to win. Unfortunately in the last lap I had two false neutrals, one going into Honda and the other going into the hairpin. I was closing to the guys in front, but it cost me some time. I guess that’s the way racing is but I’m still happy, I’m coming away with a bag full of points and we’re off to Qatar with high spirits!” Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Supersport Team “Wow, that was a really tough race for me! My shoulder was still in a lot of pain but I really wanted to get out and race for the first one of the season. The pack was really tight at the front so it was really exciting and I knew I had the speed to stay with the leaders. Unfortunately the pain in my shoulder got greater and greater and my arm started to go numb so it was starting to get very difficult to ride so I had to drop back a little. I’m still happy to have taken plenty of points and looking forward to going to Qatar with no injuries to fight for the podium!” Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team manager “For Fabien I’m really happy, last night he was in pain so it’s good for him to finish in seventh position. By the end of the race he couldn’t ride properly, he couldn’t roll off throttle as his arm was numb. Fourth for Cal on the Yamaha YZF-R6 was a really great finish, especially considering his two neutrals. In the end the front three managed to get away as Laverty held him up a bit, he took advantage of the false neutrals and took it past him but he caught up again by the last lap and he nearly caught the top three. It was the first time here for him so fighting with the front group was great, especially not knowing all the passing points on the track. All in all a great start for us, we’re up there and when you see there is only one second between first and fourth you know we have the pace and are strong, the championship is going great to watch this year!” More, from a press release issued by Honda: SOFUOGLU HEADS A HONDA PODIUM SWEEP Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) started his 2009 championship campaign in perfect form with a remarkable win in a remarkable Supersport World Championship race at Phillip Island. The podium three, comprising 2007 champion Sofuoglu, 2008 champion Andrew Pitt (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) and new Honda WSS rider Anthony West (Stiggy Racing Honda CBR600RR) finished within 0.153 seconds of each other, in a race which featured as many as 15 riders in an unbroken leading pack for most of the race. Only in the latter stages did the big three make any kind of break from the last of the chasing riders, and even after 21 laps of intense action the fourth and fifth placed competitors, Cal Crutchlow and Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR) were just over a second from a podium challenge. In a photo-finish, Laverty was classified fifth, by only one thousandth of a second. The slightly damp track that appeared this morning, after two days of warm weather, played havoc with final race preparations, but the top Honda riders overcame the potential for confusion and filled six of the top ten placings on a dry track surface. Mark Aitchison (Hannspree Honda Althea CBR600RR) rode to sixth at his home circuit, and was part of the leading bunch throughout. Massimo Roccoli (Intermoto Czech Honda CBR600RR) was ninth, two places ahead of Aitchison’s team-mate, Matthieu Lagrive. Gianluca Vizziello (Hannspree Honda Althea CBR600RR) failed to finish due to a technical problem and Miguel Praia (Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR) was on target for a strong finish until he fell on lap three, shortly after setting the fastest race lap in the early stages. The next race, for Superbike and Supersport classes, is in Qatar, on Saturday 14 March. WSS Rider Quotes Kenan Sofuoglu – Hannspree Ten Kate Honda: 1st. “Andrew went very fast at the beginning while I found myself down around tenth place. I tried to ride as slowly as possible because we were worried about the rear tyre but I had to ride really hard to get back to the front and to get past Andrew and Anthony. I think Andrew and I actually touched at one point, which probably scared Ronald a bit! But I’m so happy to win, especially after setting the fastest lap in qualifying for pole position yesterday. My team has been fantastic to give me such a good bike and it’s been a great start to the championship.” Andrew Pitt – Hannspree Ten Kate Honda: 2nd. “It was a strange old race, really we were riding so slowly for most of it, just to make the tyres last. Everyone was tripping over one another until the last five laps, but that’s what we’ve been working on trying to be there when it really matters. I just found myself in the wrong place going into the final lap but big congratulations to Kenan, he had a great ride today. I thought I had timed it all well but just got on wrong spot on the last lap. It’s a lot better than last year when we left round one with no points.” Anthony West – Stiggy Racing Honda: 3rd. “The team did a good job to get the bike ready and to have the right set-up and it turned out really nice. I’m just glad to have started the season out like this. I tried everything to keep Kenan and Andrew behind me when I took the lead, but they just kept coming past me. This straight is to long and they just kept slipstreaming me. We just have to work on the bike a bit more and look to the next one.” Gianluca Vizziello – Hannspree Honda Althea: dnf technical problem. “I am disappointed with my result today because I had to retire after lap 11 due to a technical problem. I was trying to save my tyres for the last half of the race, but unfortunately did not get the chance to attack. But, I had good race pace and that gives me confidence for the next race in Qatar.” Eugene Laverty Parkalgar Honda: 5th. “That was a good race, only a thousandths of a second between me and Crutchlow. I thought he had me anyway because as we were side by side he was coming past me and then moved over in front. I had to move and lift my leg up a bit. I touched the gravel on the exit of the final turn as I was trying to get the bike upright and drive down the straight, so I lost a bit of drive. It was an incredible race, I look forward to watching it on TV. So many riders in the leading group at one time, which shows how competitive this class is.” Miguel Praia – Parkalgar Honda: dnf crash. “I made a good start to the race and on my second lap I posted 1:35.4secs which was the quickest at the time, the fifth fastest of the race and 2secs faster than my lap time from last year. I was riding well and with confidence but with a full tank of fuel which caused some problems and on lap three I made a mistake and went into the Honda Hairpin too fast and touched with Robin Harms and crashed out unhurt. With the lap time I have proved I can stay with the front runners and maybe even make the top five. My Parkalgar Honda is so good I now need to be not so aggressive in the first laps. Previously I have had to fight hard to get into the points but now I am in a new position and level and I must make a more relaxed start on the first laps, make my position and start from there. I am confident for the coming season.” Mark Aitchison – Hannspree Honda Althea: 6th. “I got a good start in the race and I managed to stay with the front group very early, that’s very important in Supersport races. In the middle of the race when I decided to push very hard I started to make some small mistakes, in the same time my tyres started to lose grip and I lost contact with the first riders. In the final five laps I couldn’t really chase the riders in front of me and I ended in sixth place.” Matthieu Lagrive – Hannspree Honda Althea: 11th. “My start was not so bad, but in the first curve I had a contact with another rider and I lost a lot of positions, so to come from so far back was not easy but near to the end of the race I recovered some positions reaching the eleventh place. It has been a very hard race for me, but I got some points for the championship and I’m confident for future races.”