WSBK – Ben Spies reacts in Salt Lake City! – Supersport race

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Ben Spies reacts in Salt Lake City !

WSBK - Ben Spies reacts in Salt Lake City! - Supersport race

The Salt Lake City event closes the first half of the 2009 SBK World Cup season … After Haga and Fabrizio demonstrated at Kyalami, Spies took advantage of his time in the USA to score big points. And the Supersports are also part of the trip !

Supersport Race

Laverty got off to the best start and kept the lead in braking the first corner. The Irishman always comes out first ahead of Crutchlow, Lascorz, McCoy, Aitchison, Sofuoglu, Nannelli and Roccoli.

From the first lap, a serious customer is at fault: Mark Aitchison, 3rd in the South African race, loses the front and cannot restart. The field is therefore free for Sofuoglu, posted a few lengths from the leading quartet.

In the first straight line, Crutchlow took advantage of the asp to pass Laverty under braking. Then follows a nice mano to mano between the two leading pilots, which allows – as often – their pursuers to quickly join in the fun.

Lascorz wasted no time in threatening Crutchlow while Sofuoglu had to fight between the two Triumphs prepared by the Parkingo BE1 team: the American circuit seemed to appeal to little English women !

Trained by Eugene Laverty, Cal Crutchlow and Joan Lascorz temporarily isolate themselves. Kenan Sofuoglu, for his part, loses contact with a supercharged Garry McCoy. His styling is less impressive on the Daytona 675 than it was on the Yamaha GP 500, but the Australian has good leftovers: he sets the fastest time of the race on his 6th lap. !

In front, the Yamaha n ° 35 frequently shifts to the end of the straight line to pretend to steal the lead of the race from the Honda n ° 50, but always changes its mind at the last moment … Behind, the Ninja n ° 26 seems take his troubles patiently.

The 7th lap was particularly lively: the American Melissa Paris unfortunately left to make a mistake and had to give up while Kenan Sofuoglu made his effort: he had just passed McCoy and easily joined the three leading men, leaving the two Triumphs to be explained between they…

"Our last results weren’t good but we made some big changes on the bike in America", confides the Turkish who, from the morning warm-up, knew he could play for the win.

Eighth at the end of the first loop, Matthieu Lagrive is halfway through the race in 11th position. Fabien Foret, on the other hand, gained four places: he climbed from 11th to 7th place in the same period of time and joined in the beautiful battle that still opposes the Daytona…

Solid, Laverty goes on laps: the timid attempts to overrun by Crutchlow in no way distracted the young driver from the Parkalgar team, who gradually raised his voice. Nannelli and his Daytona n ° 69 are permanently dropped, threatened by Foret and his R6 n ° 99.

It is in the 15th lap that Kenan Sofuoglu decides to overtake Lascorz: the maneuver is authoritarian – the Turkish man apologizes for it – and proves to what extent the 2007 champion wishes to return to the podium … even victory !

In the following loop, it is the turn of Fabien Foret – 2002 champion – to gain a place: he climbs to 5th position at the expense of Gianluca Nannelli, but could not do better: Lascorz is 10 seconds ahead and turns a good half second faster…

In front of the Ninja n ° 26, the infernal trio launched into a captivating final: at the start of the last lap, Laverty was still in the lead ahead of Crutchlow and Sofuoglu. And it is again Kenan who shows himself the most incisive !

Near the hairpin bend to the left – halfway through – the Turkish brakes while sliding and passes under Crutchlow’s Yam ‘. The two pilots must widen and concede Eugene Laverty a few steps ahead … which Kenan reduces to nothing in a few turns !

Supercharged, Sofuoglu took first place in the rapid left before the last sequence of the circuit. An attack again "virile" since the Honda n ° 54 touches the Honda n ° 50 and Laverty briefly loses his support on the outside footrest !

"I may have touched Eugene (sic) by the way"Kenan admits, readily accepting that his maneuver is called rough,"but running is a tough sport". Besides, Johnny doesn’t blame him !

"If I hadn’t been there he would have landed in the Salt Lake"(yes, the Salt Lake, editor’s note), will estimate the Irish pilot,"but it’s well played, he himself was jostled in the last rounds".

Nose in the bubble, Kenan Sofuoglu fled to the finish line, followed by Eugene Laverty and Cal Crutchlow! Joan Lascorz passes under the checkered flag a few moments later, but you have to wait ten seconds to see Fabien Foret cross the line.

Matthieu Lagrive takes advantage of Massimo Roccoli’s running out of fuel to gain a place: the French finished 9th while the Italian who should have seized 8th place must push his Honda to an angry 23rd place…

Kenan also coasted his lap of honor and pocketed the 25 victory points. And contrary to what one might think, Eugene Laverty is delighted with his 20 points: "the most important thing here was to beat Cal and that’s why I’m not too disappointed with the result", notes the Honda rider.

For his part, Cal is also satisfied with his 16 points: "it was for us the worst weekend of the season and we still manage to finish 3rd, only a second behind the winner", relativizes the Yamaha rider who saw himself rather finish 5th or 6th.

In the general classification therefore, Laverty (126 points) comes back 9 lengths of Crutchlow (135) and has 27 points ahead of the 2007 champion Sofuoglu (108). The 2008 champion is 4th with 73 points, a score he shares with Lascorz.

Fabien Foret gains a place: he is 7th with 55 points behind West (66) but ahead of Aitchison (50) and Pirro (48). Finally, McCoy (39) takes advantage of his 6th place to get Matthieu Lagrive (28) out of the World Top 10.

On the constructors’ side, Honda is increasing its lead: the winged brand has totaled 158 points (out of 175 at most) against 135 for Yamaha, 84 for Kawasaki, 46 for Triumph and 30 for Suzuki.

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