Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider, Kenan Sofuoglu, took victory in today’s opening 2009 World Supersport championship race in Australia. The Turkish rider beat team-mate Andrew Pitt by just six one hundredths of a second after 21 laps of the 4.445km Phillip Island circuit, while Anthony West made it an all-Honda podium with third place.

The Ten Kate Honda duo had planned to maintain a relatively slow pace early in the race in order to preserve the rear tyres on their CBR600RRs. But the race turned out to be a thrilling encounter with less than a second covering the top ten riders at the halfway point.

However, the leading trio opened a one-second gap from the chasing pack by the end of the race, resulting in a hard-fought battle for the final podium places. Andrew Pitt dedicated his second place to victims of the recent bushfires in Australia and has pledged his prize money to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal Fund.


Andrew Pitt – second
It was a strange old race, really – we were riding so slowly for most of it, just to make the tyres last. Everyone was tripping over one another until the last five laps, but that’s what we’ve been working on – trying to be there when it really matters. I just found myself in the wrong place going into the final lap but big congratulations to Kenan, he had a great ride today.

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Results – 2009 World Supersport championship, round one, Phillip Island Australia

1 Kenan Sofuoglu TUR (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda)
2 Andrew Pitt AUS (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda)
3 Anthony West AUS (Honda)
4 Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Yamaha
5 Eugene Laverty (IRL) Honda
6 Mark Aitchison (AUS) Honda