We have not seen a rider in World Supersport, successfully defend a championship, for a decade. But now, it could happen again. Kenan Sofuoglu could not win the championship last time out in France. Can he do it today, in Spain? This is the penultimate round of the 2016 FIM World Supersport Championship, coming up, next!
We are set for round eleven of twelve in the FIM World Supersport Championship. Here are our post time weather conditions. Air temperature is 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit), and track temperature is 26 degrees Celsius (78 degrees Fahrenheit). We have an eastern wind at six kilometers an hour, three miles an hour. So many people are in the paddock before we get started. Two races now remain in the championship, and that means only 50 points are on offer. It is almost guaranteed, that with a 42 point edge on his Puccetti Kawasaki team mate Randy Krummenacher, Kenan Sofuoglu will be crowned champion after today's race. Then again, we said that in France. He crashed into Estoril corner.
So, anything can happen. The manufacturer's championship could also be locked up. Kawasaki leads Honda by 39 points, and MV Agusta by 42 points. Sofuoglu is looking to be the first back-to-back Supersport world champion since Sebastien Charpentier did that, in 2005 and 2006. WSSP rider Gino Rea is not racing today, but is in the broadcast booth with WSBK announcers Greg Haines and Steve English. Randy Krummenacher is the only rider who can stop Kenan Sofuoglu. Randy Krummenacher's only WSSP win this year came at the season opener in Australia at Phillip Island way back in February. He is the only man who can stop his team mate, Sofuoglu, from winning the title.
Krummenacher was fastest in morning warmup. We have not seen an internal team mate battle between Krummenacher and Sofuoglu. Roberto Rolfo will start from pit lane for exceeding the engine allocation for his MV Agusta as he went on to use an eighth motor in the morning warmup. Krummenacher was fastest in the warmup as mentioned. We have the championship up for grabs for the European Supersport Cup. Gino Rea is dealing with a broken hand at this point after a crash in qualifying. He got into a wreck in qualifying with Hikari Okubo and is not racing today. The bikes are out for sighting laps at the moment.
Gino Rea had an operation on his hand but is out for the finale. He'll have to wait, recover, and focus on 2017. Axel Basani should win the European Supersport Cup in this race today, after it's conclusion. Alessandro Zaccone, however, is the highest placed European Supersport Cup rider on the starting grid, rolling off sixth. Kenan Sofuoglu earns his 30th career WSSP pole. Kenan Sofuoglu can easily secure the world championship if he finishes in the top eight places. Sofuoglu is on pole. Randy Krummenacher is second.
All the Kawasaki ZX6R's have been strong this weekend. Jules Cluzel starts third. Niki Tuuli on the Yamaha YZF R6 is fourth. Completing the top five is Kyle Smith. Alessandro Zaccone is sixth. P.J. Jacobsen, Federico Caricasulo, Illiya Michalchik, and Axel Bassani complete the top ten. Zulfahmi Khairuddin is 11th, and in 12th, Ayrton Badovini. P.J. Jacobsen is facing tough times. He has not won a race this year, and the talks with teams in Moto2 for him to have a deal for next year, have fallen through.
Most riders on the Supersport grid are unsure of where they will be for next year, with the exception, probably, of Kenan Sofuoglu, who will return to the Puccetti team. Illia Mychalchyk is ninth. Yours truly, has been misspelling his name all year, as it is spelled with Y's and not with I's. Axel Bassani is tenth. Eleventh will be Zulfahmi Khairuddin. Once again, in 12th, it's Ayrton Badovini. The safety car pulls away. We are five minutes from the start. Nacho Calero is 14th. Calero starts inbetween Kyle Ryde and Luke Stapleford. Remember, Zulfahmi Khairuddin, and Nacho Calero, are team mates. Calero scored a point at Motorland Aragon, the first European race of the year.
Triumph are coming along well, and might be stronger for next year. Spanish rider Xavier Pinsach rolls off 16th. Kyle Ryde and Luke Stapleford have both come to FIM World Supersport from the British Supersport Championship and have done very well. Once again, today could be the day, for Kenan Sofuoglu to become the first back-to-back Supersport champion, in a decade. Lorenzo Zanetti is now racing an MV Agusta for GRT, a different team. We have a 31 bike field for WSSP today at Jerez. The last rider on the grid, due to Roberto Rolfo starting from pit lane, is South Africa's Dorren Loureiro.
Loureiro is from Johannesburg, South Africa, riding the #20 Wilsport Racedays Honda CBR600RR. Kawasaki needs a 25 point cushion over rivals from Honda, MV Agusta, Yamaha, and Triumph, to score the manufacturer's championship. Some riders nearly touch, on the warmup lap. Be careful, boys. Jules Cluzel and Zulfahmi Khairuddin very nearly touch. The points situation looks like this. Sofuoglu leads by 42 markers over Randy Krummenacher, 171-129. Jules Cluzel is third, on 116 points, 55 back. Fourth spot is held by P.J. Jacobsen, 62 markers behind, on 109 points.
Sofuoglu looks to become a five-time World Supersport champion, and the first back-to-back champion in the class, as mentioned, since Sebastien Charpentier in 2005 and 2006. We update the weather conditions on the warmup lap and they've gone up a degree each. 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit), air temp. 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit), track temp. Having experience here at Jerez is very valuable. Roberto Rolfo and Kyle Ryde, both of them will actually start from the pit lane.
31 riders, set for a start here at Jerez. It's time, to bring the action, World Supersport style! Red lights on, and... red lights, out! We're underway, on the short run to turn one here at Jerez! Kenan Sofuoglu and Niki Tuuli both make flying starts, and the top three is already pulling clear of the rest of the field. Kenan Sofuoglu has the race lead at the moment. Ksyle Smith moves up from fifth to fourth as P.J. Jacobsen looks for a way around his competition. Everyone has started cleanly as Robbie Rolfo gets away from the pit lane. Sofuoglu leads followed by Krummenacher, Tuuli, and Jacobsen. They fly down the back straight towards Dry Sac for the first time.
Krummenacher looks straight across to Kenan Sofuoglu saying, "watch out, buddy. I'm on to you. You won't get away easily." Niki Tuuli is having another competitive run already. Remember now, he ran in the top three in France last time out and he set fastest lap of the race in both the German round at the Lausitzring, and last time out at Magny-Cours. Krummenacher has a bit of a slip up in the Angel Nieto corner. Oh no. Poor old Kyle Ryde will not even be able to start this race. He will take no further part in World Supersport at Jerez! The team was changing the engine on his bike and they didn't get it done in time.
Niki Tuuli is running the high line through turn one, trying to put a move on the leading Kawasaki's. Randy Krummenacher, though he's second, he's riding very defensive lines at the moment. Krummenacher will have a hard time passing because his team mate, Kenan Sofuoglu, is a demon on the brakes. If you don't make a move on Kenan Sofuoglu, he can get his head down, and pull away. Other riders in other motorcycle road racing categories, have that same ability, that if they aren't challenged early on, they can leave everyone else racing, in the dust. P.J. Jacobsen has moved up to fifth, to clear away from a great battle between Axel Basani and Jules Cluzel. Basani is already the highest place rider in the Euro Supersport Cup, in this field.
Randy Krummenacher turns the first fastest lap of this race at 1:44.376. Let's have a look at the top fifteen riders.
1. Kenan Sofuoglu
2. Randy Krummenacher
3. Niki Tuuli
4. Kyle Smith
5. P.J. Jacobsen
6. Jules Cluzel
7. Axel Bassani
8. Federico Caricasulo
9. Alessandro Zaccone
10. Ayrton Badovini
11. Zulfahmi Khairuddin
12. Xavier Pinsach
13. Illia Mykalchyk
14. Christian Gammarino
15. Nacho Calero
Niki Tuuli, while we were covering the top 15 rundown, has lost ground to both Kawasaki's. Here at Jerez, unlike in the last two races, the Kawasaki's have an advantage over the Yamaha. Randy Krummenacher is beginning to get impatient with Kenan Sofuoglu. Manuel Puccetti, team boss, is pretty calm, as his two riders scrap. The cardinal rule in racing is simple. Don't take your team mate out. Krummenacher believes he's being held up by Sofuoglu. Tuuli, in the meantime, resets fastest lap at 1:44.355. This battle between Kenan Sofuoglu and Randy Krummenacher, is very similar to the factory Kawasaki's of Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea that we see in World Superbike.
Worrying about his competition, has caused Sofuoglu to run way deep into the corner. Although, he may be letting Krummenacher and Niki Tuuli by, for a brief while. We update the championship standings as the race goes on. Right now, Kenan Sofuoglu leads Randy Krummenacher by 33 points, 187-154. Jules Cluzel stays third, 61 points behind, on 126. Fourth place Kyle Smith is a second and a half behind right now. So he will not pose a threat to Sofuoglu. It is interesting, because the animosity between team mates here between Krummenacher and Sofuoglu, may be more present than it is with Rea and Sykes in World Superbike. The irony there is, Krummenacher is set to step up to Superbike in 2017, while Kenan Sofuoglu stays in Supersport.
Oh no! We have drama! Randy Krummancher falls off the bike! This is a gift, to Kenan Sofuoglu, unless Krummenacher can rejoin the race! It does not seem likely, and even if he does, Sofuoglu should have the championship wrapped up. Into turn one, the front end of the motorcycle washes away from Krummenacher and pitches him off. There's a small bump in that corner and that is what unsettled the motorcycle. So, Niki Tuuli is now your new race leader. Once again, we update the points table after Krummenacher's wreck. Sofuoglu leads on 191 points and the gap now is 62 points, with Krummenacher on 139, Cluzel 66 points back on 125, and Jacobsen 69 back on 122.
Sofuoglu knows he's got the title. So, will he fight for a race win with Tuuli? Stefan Hill has also crashed out of this race, on the #35 CIA Landlord Insurance Honda CBR600RR. Krummenacher is trying to rejoin the race, but he's already gone a lap down. Tuuli has finished on the podium. However, we have not had a Finnish rider win in this class before. There's a three way scrap for third between Kyle Smith, P.J. Jacobsen, and Federico Caricasulo. Axel Bassani will wrap up the European Supersport Cup honors, in sixth place. Jules Cluzel languishes in seventh just ahead of Ayrton Badovini and Zulfahmi Khairuddin.
Kenan Sofuoglu retakes the lead from Niki Tuuli. Sofuoglu raises his left hand for some reason, and lets Tuuli back into the lead at Dry Sac. That's a sportsmanship move more than anything. Sofuoglu has a faster bike than Tuuli does. It is all over for Randy Krummenacher, who runs a lap down in 29th spot. Axel Basani is comfortably in sixth, after starting tenth. Ayrton Badovini has made a pass on Jules Cluzel. Cluzel goes inside Badovini through Sito Pons corner. This time last year, Cluzel had a leg injury. Cluzel has not had a good year this year, at all.
Cluzel has passed Badovini and is now hot on the heels of Axel Bassani. Randy Krummenacher comes to pit lane. Game over. Cluzel passes Axel Bassani on the inside. Axel Basani is taking no prisoners and is pushing to the front. Khairuddin, Zaccone, and Mykhalchyk follow. On lap nine, halfway through the race, Kenan Sofuoglu has managed to take the lead away from Niki Tuuli. That was coming out of the Angel Nieto corner and down into the next corner, named for another famous rider, Alex Criville. The gap has widened by a second and a half back to Kyle Smith in third. Sofuoglu is trying to break away from Tuuli.
Can Tuuli keep up with a motorcycle that has been a lot faster than he has around Jerez de la Frontera? We have ten laps to find out. Also, it is indeed official. Kenan Sofuoglu is the 2016 FIM World Supersport champion! Sofuoglu has nothing left to prove. He's got the championship. So, he can try to go for the win. Tuuli is going for it. Remember, Tuuli faded over the final couple circuits in Germany back in September. The gap back to Kyle Smith is just under a second. Jules Cluzel has managed to hold sixth. Ayrton Badovini, Alessandro Zaccone, and Zulfahmi Khairuddin, complete the top ten.
With respect to Randy Krummenacher, you have to go back to Imola in May, to find the last time he didn't score points, in another race that was a bit of a shemozzle. Nine laps to go, and Kenan Sofuoglu is feeling the heat from Niki Tuuli. Tuuli takes the lead, as Sofuoglu looks back over his shoulder. He must get the feeling that someone is going to overtake him pretty soon. Under braking he was looking down at the dashboard on the motorcycle, too, to find out what gear he was in. Most riders take the approach to Dry Sac in first gear. He probably punched the transmission into second gear, and had no drive into the corner.
Most of the bikes like the MV Agusta, Honda, and Yamaha, all have a long first gear. The same would be true with the Kawasaki. Sofuoglu could have transmission trouble. Kyle Smith is right behind Sofuoglu now, and was fastest of the top three on that previous lap. Kyle Smith is gaining on Kenan Sofuoglu more than Sofuoglu is on Niki Tuuli. The owner of Illiya Mykalchyk's motorcycle, former WSBK rider David Salom, has a birthday today. He is 32 years old. Happy Birthday, David Salom. Zulfahmi Khairuddin is having a good showing and knows Jerez well from racing here in Moto2 and Moto3.
Smith is only 2/10ths behind Sofuoglu through the right hand turns at Nieto and Peluqui. Will Kyle Smith be close enough to try and pass him? Will Sofuoglu throw all he has at trying to get past Niki Tuuli? Kyle Smith now resets fastest lap at 1:45 flat. 1:45.070. Wait. Smith is even faster now. 1:44.897. Jules Cluzel loses a spot to Ayrton Badovini, and is now eighth. Kenan Sofuoglu may be picking up the pace again, and his issues with the motorcycle are just intermittent. Sofuoglu actually lowers the fast time to 1:44.871. P.J. Jacobsen runs fourth at the moment. Sofuoglu is now attacking Tuuli into Angel Nieto corner! This pressure has been turned up even more. Kenan Sofuoglu retakes the lead and Kyle Smith wants to also have a go at Tuuli.
Six laps remain. The plot thickens. Kyle Smith is sideways into Jorge Lorenzo corner and wobbles a bit. One of the brake handles on Kyle Smith's bike is damaged. But there is a safety feature in that, to prevent the front brake from being locked and forcing riders to be flung over the handlebars like they were in MotoGP a fewyears ago and also in the glory days of the wickedly fast 500cc Grand Prix bikes. There's a real four way battle for sixth place going on between Cluzel, Bassani, Mychalchyk, and Badovini. Kenan Sofuoglu has opened a gap over Tuuli and Tuuli opens another tenth on Kyle Smith.
Game over for Nacho Calero, crashing in turn one. Jules Cluzel is caught right in the middle of the ESS fight and Ayrton Badovini is also right there. Lorenzo Zanetti is the rider for GRT as the factory squad ran out of motors, and Zanetti is subbing for Gino Rea. All of the MV Agusta bikes have struggled in this race. Illia Mychalchyk was really roughed up by Jules Cluzel and almost fell off the motorcycle! Three laps left and P.J. Jacobsen has caught Kyle Smith. Niki Tuuli is making inroads on Kenan Sofuoglu with only three laps left. We are not sure where Kyle Smith or P.J. Jacobsen will end up, next year.
Game over for Federico Caricasulo, who drops out of the race, from 11th spot. We recycle the order and Illiya Mychalchyk and Ayrton Badovini, move up, allowing two new riders to enter the top ten in the forms of Christoffer Bergman and Lorenzo Zanetti. Let's review the top fifteen again before we end this race.
1. Kenan Sofuoglu
2. Niki Tuuli
3. Kyle Smith
4. P.J. Jacobsen
5. Axel Bassani
6. Jules Cluzel
7. Ayrton Badovini
8. Illiya Mychalchyk
9. Christoffer Bergman
10. Lorenzo Zanetti
11. Alessandro Zaccone
12. Xavier Pinsach
13. Zulfahmi Khairuddin
14. Luke Stapleford
15. Hikari Okubo
It is the penultimate lap. With one lap left, here's the points situation. Sofuoglu leads on 196 points. He now has the championship all but secure, 67 points ahead of team mate Randy Krummenacher, who is out, on 129 points, with Jules Cluzel on 126 and P.J. Jacobsen on 122. We now see Zulfahmi Khairuddin dropping through the order. Stapleford and Okubo move up and Khairuddin looks like he will be the final point scorer in 15th, for one single point. Tuuli and Sofuoglu are separated by half a second. If Tuuli ends up second, that's nothing to sneeze at. He'll have three straight second place efforts. Axel Bassani and Jules Cluzel scrap for fifth.
It's the last lap. The five-time World Champion will likely win his sixth WSSP race of 2016, the 38th of his career, and he'll likely win this race. The polesitter at Jerez has always won the race and the championship. Sam Lowes did in 2013. Michael van der Mark in 2014. Kenan Sofuoglu, last year, and Kenan Sofuoglu again, this year. Niki Tuuli is still second, but Kyle Smith and P.J. Jacobsen close up. Kenan Sofuoglu will defend a world title for the first time, and win his fifth FIM World Supersport championship as we've already mentioned.
An amazing title defense for Sofuoglu. Five-time World Champion, Kenan Sofuoglu wins! Kawasaki is the manufacturer's champion. Axel Bassani is the 2016 European Supersport Cup champion! Roberto Rolfo stops on the track right at the end.
World Supersport Race: #1 Kenan Sofuoglu TUR. Kawasaki Puccetti Racing Kawasaki ZX6R
World Supersport Champion: #1 Kenan Sofuoglu TUR. Kawasaki Puccetti Racing Kawasaki ZX6R
Congratulations, Kenan Sofuoglu! Five-time World Champion. Kawasaki are the manufacturer's champs. One more race to be run for World Supersport, at the Losail circuit in Doha, Qatar, coming up in ten days from now.
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