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The official race report service of Kawasaki Racing Team.

WSS, Aragon, SPAIN, 2 Aprile 2016

Superpole Win For Sofuoglu As Krummenacher Takes Second Spot

Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) secured his second pole position of the season with his Superpole winning lap time of 1’54.000. It gave him a class leading 25th Superpole win in the WorldSSP category and ensured he would start from the optimum spot on the front row for Sunday’s 16-lap race. His team-mate Randy Krummenacher was second on the grid.

Sofuoglu spent most of his time working on a race set-up and then a change in setting allowed him to go for his successful qualifying time in the 15-minute Superpole 2 track session.
Randy Krummenacher (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), winner of the first race of the year, was second, overcoming some technical issues that prevented him making a full quota of laps over the first two days of track action.
Krummenacher’s second place lap time put him 0.830 seconds behind Sofuoglu but ready to fight for another podium in what will only be his third WorldSSP race start since his move from Moto2.
In a fine fifth place Christian Gamarino (GO Eleven Kawasaki) was the third Kawasaki rider in the top five grid places.
 
After morning warm-up tomorrow the race itself will take place at 11.20 – Sunday 3 April.
 
Kenan Sofuoglu stated: “It’s nice to make 25 Superpole wins and at the beginning we worked a lot on old tyres and with full tank of fuel, to make a race simulation, and never focused on a fast lap time. We made a big change on the bike today to go for a good lap time. Yesterday we had some issues when I tried something on the bike but we made the change today and the bike is quite a bit different. I am still adapting to it but it looks like we have a good advantage. The most important thing is to be ready for the race tomorrow. The main thing is that I am strong on worn tyres so I am very happy to face the race.”
Randy Krummenacher stated: “I could not make the preparations for the race the way I wanted because we had some issues yesterday and this morning. I did not do a lot of laps until now, so I am quite happy to be on the front row. For sure we can improve our package for tomorrow. With more laps I will get a better feeling for the bike and understand it more. Kenan did a really great lap but I think I can improve tomorrow to keep with him and that must be the goal for the race.”
Alessandro Zaccone (San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki) was tenth in qualifying for his first race of the year as a part-time ESS championship rider, while his team-mate Axel Bassani (San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki) placed 12th after Superpole 2. DS Junior Kawasaki team rider Ilya Mikhalchik was 15th on the grid, Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) 17th.
Series regular Ondrej Jezek (GoEleven) finished Superpole 1 in 20th place. Nacho Calero (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) was 21st and Lachlan Epis (Response RE Team Kawasaki) 32nd of 35 riders. Japanese wildcard rider Hiromichi Kunikawa (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) was 30th after Superpole.