For three time world champion Sofuoglu the race at Misano was challenging as he had a less than perfect race set-up by he time the flag dropped but he battled hard to stay in contention and took 13 points for his fourth place finish. He was only 5.638 seconds from the winner. Sofuoglu is now sixth overall in the championship, one point behind fifth place.
Jacobsen moved from a qualifying position of eighth to third in an impressive raceday performance, during what was only the seventh WSS weekend of his career. He is now seventh in the championship but his team-mate Florian Marino (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) is still the highest placed Ninja ZX-6R rider after the Misano race. In finishing seventh at Misano Marino remained third in the overall points standings.
Roberto Tamburini (San Carlo Puccetti Racing Kawasaki) put in another great showing from a Kawasaki rider at Misano on raceday, taking fifth place and finishing within ten seconds of the win after 19-laps of intense action at the generally tight 4.226km long Misano track.
Local rider Roby Rolfo (Kawasaki Team Go Eleven) took tenth place today and made sure that half the top ten machines in the final race results would be Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6Rs.
Alessandro Nocco (San Carlo Puccetti Racing Kawasaki) had his second-best season finish of 11th at his home round, while Christian Gamarino (Kawasaki Team Go Eleven) was the last rider to score a point, for 15th place. Tony Covena (Kawasaki Ponyexpres Intermoto) placed 18th in the race, from 23 finishers.
The next round is at Portimao in Portugal, with raceday on Sunday 6th July.
Kenan Sofuoglu: “The race result disappointed me because my race pace was quite good even if earlier in the weekend I did not have such a good feeling on the front, as we had a chattering problem. We had an improvement with that in the race and in the last sector it was better than it had been all weekend. In the race it seems when we found something in that area we missed out a little in another area. I had a bit of a corner entry issue all through the race and the others were faster. I tried my best to stay with them but it was clear they could go faster than me. Now, step-by-step, the team is improving the bike and the settings but I cannot say I am on good form at the moment. I am trying my best to get my confidence back but for sure we are fighting to get a good result.”
Patrick Jacobsen: “I think we just found a couple of things with the bike that suit my style a little bit more and I think we are improving every race. Another new track for me but the bike felt really good in the race and I just could not stay with Cluzel who had a big gap at the beginning. I did all I could and to bring it home on the podium for my first podium; I was pretty happy with that.”