WSS: Vd Mark glimpses title as Kennedy grabs second

With pole-sitter, Kenan Sofuoglu needing a win to stand any chance of finishing the year with the World Supersport championship to his name, this was always going to be a fascinating race; especially with the current leader Michael Vd Mark [Pata Honda] and Jules Cluzel [MV Agusta Reparto] qualifying immediately behind him.

It was the twenty-six your old Irishman, Jack Kennedy, however who provided the action for the early stages of the race. With his best finish so far this season being sixth, the PTR Honda of Kennedy chased and chased the Kawasaki of Sofuoglu, having jumped to second from his fourth place qualifying position. After three failed attempts to take the lead from the Kawasaki in the run down to turn one, he finally made the move stick on the start of lap five and found himself leading a race and chasing his first podium of the year.

Two laps later, the class of the championship leader began to show however and Vd Mark, mirroring Keenedy’s move of a few laps earlier, slipped inside down the same, turn one straight to secure the lead.

By lap ten, the lead-pack of Vd Mark, Kennedy and Sofuoglu broke free with a gap of 0.4 seconds between them. Jules Cluzel, having run wide earlier in the race, mysteriously dropped down to eighteenth and finally dropped out of the race, offering VdMark a firm glimpse of the championship trophy.

With white flags again greeting the riders at lap thirteen and with it raining heavy in some parts of the track, the red flag came out soon after.

And so, with Vd Mark taking first place and securing a firm grip on the championship over a retired Cluzel and a dejected Sofuoglu in third, it was Jack Kennedy, claiming second in his twentieth World Supersport race that provided the biggest smile of the day.