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HANNspree Ten Kate Honda>> Tight at the top in Supersport qualifying

February 27 2010

Less than three tenths of a second separated the top five riders after this afternoon’s opening qualifying session for this weekend’s first round 2010 World Supersport championship race at Phillip Island in Australia.

Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider, Kenan Sofuoglu, set the third fastest time in this afternoon’s 45-minute session, which took place in temperatures of more than 30 degrees with a track temperature of almost 50 degrees. The Turkish rider was just 0.054s behind provisional pole sitter, Joan Lascorz.

Sofuoglu’s new team-mate for 2010, Michele Pirro, was fifth fastest today, his debut competitive outing for the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team. The 23-year-old Italian was less than two tenths behind his more experienced team-mate and only three tenths away from Lascorz’s time.

Kenan Sofuoglu – P3, 1’34.683s
I am actually very disappointed because it seems that we have only two tyre options and we are experiencing problems with both. We have a pretty good set-up to do a fast lap, but we have had to concentrate today’s time on trying to make the tyres last. I know I can probably go 0.5s faster but there is no point going for that. We don’t have many ideas for a solution right now, but we will all sit down later and try to come up with some ideas for tomorrow.

Michele Pirro – P5, 1’34.918s
The times are very close so I am not so unhappy with my performance today. The bike is not perfect, however, and we have worked hard to find the right set-up and tyre choice for the race on Sunday. Tomorrow we will try some different ideas to get the tyre to work better and I will try very hard for a front row starting position.

Ronald ten Kate – team manager
We have spent a lot of time today trying to find a good race set-up. Although we’re not far off, there is still a lot more to come. We have both riders fully up there and we’re confident that things will improve both tomorrow and on Sunday.

2010 World Supersport championship – round 1
Phillip Island, Australia – 4.445km
1. Joan Lascorz (ESP) Kawasaki 1’34.629s
2. Eugene Laverty (IRL) Honda 1’34.634s
3. Kenan Sofuoglu (TUR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 1’34.683s
4. Katsuaki Fujiwara (JPN) Kawasaki 1’34.783s
5. Michele Pirro (ITA) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda 1’34.918s
6. Chaz Davies (GBR) Triumph 1’34.939s

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.