Smith fights back for a point after Imola crash
Pata Honda rider Kyle Smith was unable to repeat his podium exploits of the previous two outings after crashing out of the fifth-round World Supersport race which was won by Kenan Sofuoglu at Imola in Italy this afternoon.
Starting from tenth place on the grid after suffering front-end grip problems during practice and qualifying, Smith, 23, got a reasonable start in this afternoon’s 17-lap encounter at the 4.936km Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola.
However, Smith crashed out of eighth place at the tight turn seven on the third lap of the race before rejoining in last position. He fought back past a number of other riders before running out of laps in fifteenth place for a solitary point, which drops him to sixth place in the overall standings.
The British rider, who was brought up in Spain, heads back to the land of his birth for round six at Donington Park in two weeks’ time where he will be seeking to put his Pata Honda CBR600RR back on the World Supersport podium.
Kyle Smith – 15th
It’s been an eventful weekend and I’ve been struggling for grip and to get a good front-end feeling on the bike. But this morning’s warm-up was the best session all weekend. We were still a little off the pace but I thought that if I could hold the rhythm, I might be able to fight for a top five and some valuable points for the season. We made no changes to the bike but I think the track temperature was around 20 degrees hotter compared to warm-up. Suddenly I had no feeling again in the front and not much grip. It washed out at the beginning of the race but I managed to get back on and rejoin. I was dead last and about 20 seconds off the guy in front of me and I still had no feeling in the front. I was around a second slower than I was in warm-up, but every point counts so you’ve got to look on th e bright side!
Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator
We had a good warm-up this morning and were feeling quite confident to move into the top five in the race. Unfortunately, Kyle crashed out so that didn’t happen. He lost the front and, to be honest, we’ve been struggling with the front all weekend and, with the higher temperatures this afternoon, we just had no grip from the front tyre that was available. It’s been a hard weekend but we’ll try to fight back at Donington.
More, from a press release issued by Dorna WSBK Press Office:
Second consecutive STK1000 win for Savadori
Lorenzo Savadori (Nuova M2 Racing Aprilia) claimed his second win of the season by coming out on top at the end of the 14-lap FIM Superstock 1000 Cup race at Imola’s Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari. The 22 year old from Cesena crossed the finish line with a controlled margin ahead of fellow Italian Roberto Tamburini (MotoxRacing BMW) as long-time second-place man Ondrej Jezek completed the podium.
Factory Yamaha rider Kev Coghlan edged out Fabio Massei (EAB Racing Ducati) for fourth as other MRS rider Jeremy Guarnoni, Tony Covena (EAB Racing Ducati), Luca Salvadori (Althea Racing Ducati), wildcard Denni Schiavoni (2R Racing BMW) and Sylvain Barrier (G.M. Yamaha) rounded out the top-10.
A spectacular crash on the second lap saw Florian Marino (MRS Yamaha) highsiding over Raffaele De Rosa (Althea Racing Ducati) and his Panigale R, both ending up on the gravel and later transferred at the medical centre.
FIM Superstock 1000 Cup Imola – Race
1 – Lorenzo Savadori Nuova M2 Racing Aprilia
2 – Roberto Tamburini MotoxRacing BMW +2.268
3 – Ondrej Jezek Triple-M by Barni Ducati +7.279
Standings (3 of 8 rounds completed)
1 – Lorenzo Savadori Nuova M2 Racing Aprilia – 70
2 – Roberto Tamburini MotoxRacing BMW – 45
3 – Ondrej Jezek Triple-M by Barni Ducati – 43
More, from a press release issued by CIA Landlords Insurance Honda:
CIA LANDLORDS INSURANCE HONDA scored three out of four riders in the top 10 at the fifth round of the World Supersport Championship at Imola in Italy.
Gino Rea finished seventh, Ricardo Russo was eighth and Martin Cardenas ninth across the line in a strong team finish.
Gino said: “I wasn’t strong enough in the first part of the race. On the last lap I touched with Wilairot and lost a bit of time and couldn’t reclaim sixth. I want to get back fighting for the podium. That’s my only target for the next round at home in the UK. I am looking forward to that already.”
Kieran Clarke for the third race in a row finished 16th and just outside the points. The sixth round of the World Supersport Championship is a home event for CIA Landlords Insurance Honda at Donington Park in the UK on Sunday 24th May.
CIA Landlords Insurance Honda Team Manager Simon Buckmaster said: “Three riders inside the top 10 shows the strength in depth of the CIA Landlords Insurance Honda team.
“Gino couldn’t match the front runners and fought hard for seventh. He never complains about his foot injury but it makes direction changes more difficult. The flowing nature of the majority of a Donington Park lap will not put so much strain through his foot and then we will have a break to let it heal more.
“Ricky is going from strength to strength. He made one mistake and lost time at the last chicane when he ran off track, but he’s improving all the time.
“Martin has never been to the track before and had what I personally think is a really strong ride, he is improving all the time.
“Kieran missed out again by a fraction of a second on a point scoring finish. Could there be a better venue for him to achieve that than the next round at Donington Park? That is a home round for Kieran, Gino and the team. We are looking forward to having the support of the fans to help us get back fighting for the podium where we belong.”
Race Result, Imola
1 K Sofuoglu
2: J Cluzel + 0.883
3: L Zanetti +9.624
4: P Jacobsen +11.116
5: M Facanni +14.327
6: R Wilairot +29.276
7: G REA, CIA LANDLORDS INSURANCE HONDA +29.760
8: R RUSSO, CIA LANDLORDS INSURANCE HONDA +30.745
9: M CARDENAS, CIA LANDLORDS INSURANCE HONDA +36.262
16: K CLARKE, CIA LANDLORDS INSURANCE HONDA +1’10.242
More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:
Sofuoglu Takes Strong Imola WSS Race Win
Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) secured an emotional race win at Imola, his third straight WSS race victory of 2015, to give him an extended championship lead of 37 points over his fellow Ninja ZX-6R rider PJ Jacobsen (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpress).
Once more in a race Sofuoglu found Jules Cluzel his closest challenger but after taking the lead on lap nine Sofuoglu felt in control, in a race he was particularly keen to win.
Turkish rider Sofuoglu reached an unprecedented total of 30 career WSS race wins today, achieved in 97 races.
Jacobsen was less than two seconds from his own podium finish, but had to settle for fourth. With Kenan on 105 points now, Jacobsen grew his second place total to 68 at Imola.
Front row qualifier Marco Faccani (San Carlo Puccetti Racing Kawasaki) did not quite have the race-long pace to compete for a podium but a fifth place finish at his home round is the best result of his rookie WSS season. He is now tenth in the championship.
Christian Gamarino (Team Go Eleven Kawasaki) earned an 11th place at his home round in Imola, while Aussie wild card rider Aiden Wagner (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) scored two points for 14th. Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) no scored.
Donington Park in the UK will host the sixth round of the series, on 24th May 10th.
Kenan Sofuoglu: “Today the race was not easy. I was not prepared in my conditioning and last week I did not sleep well. On the other side of the story I was strong because I know how difficult it was to come here. For that reason, inside me, I came here for a win. I think this race was very hard because Cluzel was strong, more than I expected, but I told myself if I was here I was here to win. I was not going to accept second, not today. There will be days when I have to but not today. I am happy to have taken 25 points and now I go straight back to Turkey.”
Marco Faccani: “I think this was a good performance for me, because fifth was my best result. I am not so happy because I was third on the grid and wanted to go for a podium. Jacobsen was not so far from me, so maybe I could have made it fourth place but Zanetti was faster to take third place.”
More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing:
Coghlan and Yamaha YZF-R1M Fourth at Imola
MRS Yamaha Superstock 1000 FIM Cup rider Kev Coghlan took his new YZF-R1M to fourth place in the 14-lap race at Imola, having moved up from a qualifying position of sixth.
His team-mate Florian Marino crashed out on lap two after contesting a top five position, highsiding in a chicane and suffering dislocated fractures to his left radius and ulna, as he battled for track position. He will undergo an operation to his forearm to help his recovery.
Imola had proved to be a tough challenge in practice but thanks to improvements made in the relatively new machine’s race set-up Coghlan was able to run to a clear fourth place. He was less than four seconds from what would have been a second podium, following on from his third place in the Aragon round.
Coghlan remains fourth in the overall championship after taking 13 points at Imola and he now has a total of 39 after three of the scheduled eight rounds have been completed.
Jeremy Guarnoni from Team Trasimeno Yamaha scored a strong sixth place at Imola, as Sylvain Barrier (G.M. Racing Yamaha Team) took points for the second time in 2015, placing tenth in the race for his best finish of the year. Consistent points scorer Guarnoni is seventh overall and Barrier is 13th. Marino is ninth in the points after three rounds.
The next race takes place at Coghlan’s home round, Donington Park in the UK, with raceday on Sunday 24th May.
Kev Coghlan
4th / +6.694/ 9 laps
“Ultimately the result is not too bad. At times we have had a really difficult weekend, working with the bike in different directions but I think we had the best overall set-up of the weekend in the race. I got a decent start and tried to hold on from there. The guys in front were just faster than us today and in Donington we are going to have to make that step and be closer to today’s front three. We made some changes to give me a bit more support when I am braking in the turns but the biggest area we are losing out is when driving off the turns. So in trying to make up time on the brakes we are pushing the front as well.”
Adrian Morillas – MRS Yamaha Team Manager
“I think fourth position was a positive thing because at the end of the race Kev did the same lap times as at the beginning, so this is a good thing for us. Now we have to work to be faster at the start of the race. I think for the next race we can have something to help us to win. We are here to win and we’re all working hard to achieve this target. Florian’s crash was very unfortunate. He had a great pace and was up there with the front group. We hope he will have a fast recovery and be back on the bike soon.”
More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:
Imola Superstock 1000 And Superstock 600
In the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup and Superstock 600 FIM European Championship classes at Imola there were some contrasting fortunes for Kawasaki riders. Overall star of the Stock 600 show yet again was young Turkish talent Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing).
Superstock 600cc
In the Superstock 600 FIM European Championship this year Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) has been simply unstoppable, taking his Ninja ZX-6R to his fourth race victory from four starts after his win at Imola on Saturday May 9th. His remarkable pace and ability to finish races gives him a perfect score of 100 points and an advantage of 55 points over his nearest rival.
Andrea Tucci scored a podium for his San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki squad by finishing in third place at his home round in Italy.
Ruben Michael Rinaldi (San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki) fell halfway through the race, restarted, but was forced to retire. His two second places through the season before Imola still place him in third spot in the championship fight.
The Stock 600 riders do not travel to Donington for their next round, but have to wait for Portimao in Portugal, with raceday on June 6th.
Superstock 1000cc
In round three of the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup Bryan Staring (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) ran out of luck in his 14 lap race, not finishing after an eventful ride that included running on in one corner, falling, and then restarting only to retire.
The Ninja ZX-10R rider is now eighth in the championship standings overall, but has five rounds left in which to make up ground.
Peter Sebestyen (Team Pedercini) was top Kawasaki points scorer in Italy, in 13th place on the day. The next round for the 1000cc stock category is at Donington Park, in the UK, between 22nd and 24th May.