World Supersport
Kenan Sofuoglu finished second in today’s thrilling tenth round World Supersport championship race at Silverstone in the UK, maintaining his 100-percent podium record for the season.
It was the Turkish rider’s fourth second place finish of the year to go with his three thirds and three race victories, giving him a 17-point advantage over Eugene Laverty, who won today’s 16-lap encounter at the 5.902km Silverstone circuit.


The race was red-flagged on the opening lap following a serious crash involving title contender Joan Lascorz and Roberto Tamburini. At the restart Sofuoglu dropped back to fourth position, before beginning a march to reel in Laverty who had grabbed the holeshot.


Sofuoglu reduced the Irishman’s lead from 1.5s, setting no fewer than four fastest laps to establish a new Silverstone lap record. Such was the pace of the CBR600RR rider, that his best lap was three-quarters of a second inside Laverty’ s pole position time.

By lap eleven, Sofuoglu and Laverty were trading places at the front but Laverty timed his move back into the lead, eventually winning by just one fifth of a second.


Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s replacement rider for the weekend, Ronan Quarmby, performed his own heroics after an X-ray following a crash yesterday morning revealed a fracture in his left ankle.

The 19-year-old South African had a pain-killing injection in order to take part in today’s race in which he finished 18th. Although the team’s regular rider, Michele Pirro, is expected to return for the next round at Nurburgring in Germany, Quarmby plans to return as a wildcard rider there on a Ten Kate-prepared CBR600RR.


Kenan Sofuoglu says: "It’s been a good weekend because all the time since Friday until this morning we have been improving the bike. I am quite happy to get these points today &n dash; OK, I like to win a lot, but I’ll have to wait until Nurburgring where I will fight even harder to win again. I want to do that for my team who have worked really hard again this weekend. It’s is very close in the championship and our bikes are quite close as well, but at Nurburgring my time to win again is coming back."

Ronan Quarmby says: "It’s not the result I wanted to take away from this weekend, which has been mixed really. On the one hand I have learned a huge amount about riding for a very high level team on an amazing CBR600RR. On the other, the crashes yesterday made things very difficult and very painful. When I woke up this morning my ankle was swollen and blue and I knew it wasn’t right. Then in warm-up I was actually screaming into my helmet from the pain – and I have quite a high pain threshold! The Clinica Mobile fixed me up with some strapping and an injection, but it w as not enough really. I hope for something better in the way of results at Nurburgring, but this weekend has been an amazing experience and I’d like to thank the team for giving me the opportunity."

Ronald ten Kate (team manager) says:
 "It’s always very nice to win, but the story from this weekend has been all about second place, which we have achieved in all five of our races here at Silverstone. As I said in the preview to the weekend, our mission here was to try to chip away time until Sunday and to try and win the race. We obviously came very close and compliments to both Kenan and Eugene for putting on a spectacular show. The lap times were incredible and the championship is for sure still a long fight, which is now between two riders. We’ve solved a lot of issues on the bike this weekend so, as a team, we’ve worked really well and the next three rounds are at tracks where I believe that we can pull the championship together."


2010 World Supersport championship – round 10
Silverstone, United Kingdom (5.902km – 16 laps) – results:
1. Eugene Laverty (IRL) Honda 24’35.068s
2. Kenan Sofuoglu (TUR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +0.220s
3. Gino Rea (GBR) Honda +12.451s
4. Chaz Davies (GBR) Triumph +13.683s
5. Robbin Harms (SWE) Honda +13.839s
6. Miguel Praia (POR) Honda +15.699s
18. Ronan Quarmby (SA) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +58.957s


Championship points after 10 of 13 rounds: 1. Sofuoglu 203, 2. Laverty 186, 3. Joan Lascorz (ESP) Kawasaki 168, 4. Davies 126, 5. Rea 83, 6. Harms 82.


Next round: Nurburgring, Germany – 3-5 September
