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HANNspree Ten Kate Honda>> Sofuoglu fit for season opener

February 26 2010

Kenan Sofuoglu has proved his fitness ahead of next weekend’s (26-28 February) opening round of the 2010 World Supersport championship after a two-day test at Phillip Island in Australia.

The 2007 champion from Turkey, who finished third in last season’s series, sustained a broken leg in a pre-season training accident last month and was forced to miss the following test at Portimao in Portugal.

Sofuoglu, however, completed two days of testing at Phillip Island with no ill-effects from the fracture, setting the fastest time yesterday and finishing second overall with a time of 1’34.691s around the 4.45km circuit that lies two hours south of Melbourne.

His team-mate, Michele Pirro, who joins the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda squad for the 2010 season, also put the team’s Honda CBR600RR machines through their paces in preparation for the opening round. The 23-year-old Italian has impressed during earlier pre-season testing and finished this final rehearsal just a tenth of a second slower than Sofuoglu with the fourth fastest time.

Kenan Sofuoglu – best lap 1’34.691s
I have a good feeling with the bike and my leg is not causing me to have any problems with riding. I found it quite easy to go fast yesterday and got into a good rhythm very quickly. However, we found out that we couldn’t make the tyre last, so we have spent today searching for a set-up that will work in the race. It looks like we made some progress in that direction this afternoon with a very different setting, but I was not able to set a fast time. Still, we will come back on Friday and continue this work to be ready for the first race next Sunday which I am looking forward to very much and feel confident that we can get a good result to start the season.

Michele Pirro – best lap 1’34.793
Everything feels OK and I am really enjoying riding the CBR and working with my new team. I like the circuit very much but it is quite difficult to learn and I am here with a completely different bike this year. Yesterday was not so easy but I had a much better feeling today and I look forward to continuing the improvements next weekend. I am happy with the work we have done during this test and with the result that we achieved. Now I am ready to race and I am very excited about next weekend

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
We managed to go fast immediately on the first day of this test and the only headache we have is trying to make the tyre last for the whole race distance. We spent all of the second day trying to resolve the problem and I am pretty sure we have found the solution we were looking for. We’ll check it again during practice on Friday when we plan to make a lot of longer runs.

HANNspree Ten Kate Honda is sponsored by Hotbodies Racing and uses our windscreens and bodywork on all of their bikes. Hotbodies Racing specializes in manufacturing high-performance parts for high-performance sportbikes. Hotbodies Racing is the market leader in Windscreens, Undertails, Huggers, Flush-Mount Signals, Street and Race Bodywork as well as MGP and Megaphone Exhausts. Hotbodies Racing supports the sport with sponsorship around the world and encourages dealer and distributor inquiries. For more information visit: www.HOTBODIESRACING.com.