PARKALGAR HONDA’S Eugene Laverty won a nail-biting 10th round of the World Supersport Championship at Silverstone in the UK while his team mate Miguel Praia scored a career best sixth in the best ever race day result for the Portuguese owned, UK operated team.
The battle for the win was between Eugene and Kenan Sofuoglu on another Honda and neither gave an inch until the last lap when Eugene made a decisive pass and held on to take his sixth victory out of 10 starts to win in front of an enthusiastic home crowd.
Miguel starting from 12th finished a career best sixth, less than four seconds from the podium in what is his best race performance ever at World Championship level.
Eugene: “It is nice to win our home race and it was a tough one. My plan had to change several times through the race. First I made a break but then Kenan put in some quick laps and then I decided to drop back and see where he was weak. I spotted his weak areas but he could have been sandbagging so I passed him again on the last lap with plenty of corners to spare and found that he really was weaker and not pretending. It is especially nice to beat Kenan in this sort of race because he is not used to losing this sort of fight and that makes it an important psychological win. My Parkalgar Honda was brilliant, we ran faster lap times than I expected and it was the best bike on the day.”
Miguel: “My Parkalgar Honda was perfect and I was very comfortable running the pace to fight for fifth and sixth places. When Chaz (Davies) passed me he was quite aggressive and sideways and I lost two places. I then sat behind Lagrive and we were catching Harms. I left my overtake on Lagrive too late to then make a pass on Chaz but I am delighted with my new personal best. I was only three-seconds from the podium and in the top six; I am so very happy and must thank my Parkalgar Honda team, the bike they gave me was fantastic.”
Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager: “The best ever results for the Parkalgar Honda team at its second home round in the UK. This win goes with Eugene’s victory at our home track of Parkalgar in Portugal in 2009 as a highlight for us all. Well done to Eugene, he beat Kenan fair and square and the race for the title is very much alive. Miguel rode an inspired race from a poor qualifying position of 12th – his potential is now starting to come through and as a team we are proud of him. Christian has shown superb promise racing against the best riders in the World and UK – it would be interesting to see how well he would perform if he had more experience on the bike and with our team; I think he would surprise a lot of people. Well done to the whole Parkalgar Honda squad and thank you to the many fans and supporters that came to see us this weekend.”
Race Result
1 50 Laverty E. (IRL) Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR 34′35.068 (163,829 kph)
2 54 Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 0.220
3 4 Rea G. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 12.451
4 7 Davies C. (GBR) Triumph Daytona 675 13.683
5 127 Harms R. (DEN) Honda CBR600RR 13.839
6 117 Praia M. (POR) Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR 15.699
7 14 Lagrive M. (FRA) Triumph Daytona 675 16.709
8 25 Salom D. (ESP) Triumph Daytona 675 17.593
9 55 Roccoli M. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 22.837
10 11 Lowes S. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 23.092
17 21 Iddon C. (GBR) Parkalgar Honda CBR600RR 55.198
Championship Positions (After 10 of 13 rounds)
1: Sofuoglu 203
2: Laverty Parkalgar Honda 186
3: Lascorz 168
4: Davies 126
5: Rea 83
6: Harms 82
7: Salom 80
8: Lagrive 65
9: Fujiwara 60
10: Pirro 58
11: Praia Parkalgar Honda 57.
