Sofuoglu for the win at any cost in Turkey
Reigning Champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Mahi Racing Team India Kawasaki) is looking forward to the Turkish Round of the Supersport World Championship, scheduled for September 15th at Istanbul's Intercity Park. The Turk's title defence campaign is in jeopardy after the crash he had during the last race at Nurburgring, that helped current leader Sam Lowes (Yakhnich Motorsport Yamaha) to extend his gap up to 54 points, with three rounds left to be contested. Sofuoglu, from now on, has no other choice but to win every race.
"It was very important for me to win in Germany" he told WorldSBK.com "even though it wouldn't have made a big difference in terms of title chase. I tried all my best to stay with Sam (Lowes) but I pushed too hard and crashed. Of course I was clearly not happy of the DNF."
Sofuoglu is obviously happy to be racing in front of his fans, even though he knows there are a lot of expectations on him. For the three-time World Supersport Champion, who is been racing in Europe for the last twelve years, this round will be more unusual - in some ways - than for most of the WSS field.
"I think racing in front of my home crowd will boost my confidence, but everybody is expecting me to win so it won't be an easy task. I'm very happy to be racing in Turkey, some people have a wrong idea about my country but they will be surprised when they see it with their own eyes. The team will come visit my house, that is one hour drive from the track, and we will do a quick race on my small track. Kawasaki bosses will be there too, and Fabien (Foret) will stay at my place. It will be good to be sleeping on my own bed during a race weekend."
Sofuoglu won't have any advantage by racing on his home track, as he doesn't have almost any knowledge of it: "A lot of people still cannot believe that I don't know the track, I never raced or trained there because it hasn't been in WSBK plans for the last seven years. I've been in the paddock for a few times and I've done 3 laps of the circuit, two years ago, for a media event. This is all I know about the Intercity Istanbul Park."
