Henny Ray Abrams | May 31, 2010
TOOELE, UT, MAY 31: World Championship leader Kenan Sofuoglu extended his championship lead by taking his second World Supersport win of the year, and second in a row at Miller Motorsports Park.The Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider got the holeshot, only to lose the lead to championship rival Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda) early on the first of 18 laps.Sofuoglu attacked on the fourth lap, but Laverty fought back. It was on the fifth lap that Sofuoglu took the lead using the draft into turn one.Laverty tried to stay close, but it was futile. Sofuoglu rode flawlessly to the end, not speeding away, but never in peril.The margin of victory was 1.028 secs.Sofuoglu, who’s finished on the podium in all seven races, now has a six point championship lead on Laverty, 142 to 136.Kawasaki Motocard.com’s Joan Lascorz was third early and made a run at Laverty, finishing only .6 secs. behind. Lascorz holds onto third in the standings with 128 points.The battle for fourth was the best one. ParkinGO Triumph BE1’s Chaz Davies, who ran third early, tried to settle into fourth without much luck. He had too much company and they were too determined.At first it was Michel Pirro (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) who was applying the pressure. And, in fact, he would to the end. But he was joined later in the race by four others.Lap after lap Pirro pressed and Davies remained steadfast. More than steadfast. In the final laps he was able to eke out a second gap to finish fourth and consolidate his fourth place in the championship.Pirro finished under pressure in fifth. Katsuaki Fujiwara (Kawasaki Motocard.com) was .183 secs. back with David Salom (ParkinGO BE1 Triumph) only .4 secs. behind.Harms Benjan Racing’s Robbin Harms, who had been in the mix, fell to a distant eighth in front of Gino Rea (Intermoto Czech).Fabien Foret was well down in tenth, but still able to edge ParkinGO BE1 Triumph’s Jason DiSalvo by a tenth of a second.The rest of the Americans were further down the order. Erion Honda’s Tyler Odom was the best of the bunch, finishing one place out of the points in 16th. Jason Farrell was well back in 18th and MPH Racing’s Melissa Paris (Yam) crashed on the seventh lap.
Results:
1. Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda)
2. Eugene Laverty (Honda)
3. Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki)
4. Chaz Davies (Triumph)
5. Michel Pirro (Honda)
6. Katsuaki Fujiwara (Kawasaki)
7. David Salom (Triumph)
8. Robbin Harms (Honda)
9. Gino Rea (Honda)
10. Fabien Foret (Kawasaki)
11. Jason DiSalvo (Triumph)
12. Matthieu Lagrive (Triumph)
13. Massimo Roccoli (Honda)
14. Miguel Praia (Honda)
15. Alexander Lundh (Honda)
16. Tyler Odom (Honda)
17. Bastien Chesaux (Honda)
18. Jason Farrell (Kawasaki)
Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor
Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.
