Reigning World Supersport champion Kenan Sofuoglu will finally line up on the gird in 2017 in this weekend’s third round of the season in Aragon, following a month out with injury.
The Puccetti Kawasaki rider broke his wrist during a winter training accident, and had to have metalwork inserted to correct the injury.
This forced him to sit out almost all of the pre-season, with his first ride on the ZX-6R coming just a week before the season was due to get underway at the two-day Phillip Island test.
Sofuoglu could only manage a small number of laps around the Australian circuit, as the pain in his hand was too severe and he felt it too dangerous to carry on. This forced him to fly home to Turkey to have further surgery, which of course meant missing the opening two rounds of the series.
Puccetti were left without a replacement for the first round, but drafted in Thai rider Thittipong Warokorn for his home round at the beginning of the month, where he scored a respectable fourth place finish.
Though missing the first two rounds, the manic nature of the 2017 WorldSSP season so far has left Sofuoglu just 30 points off of surprise championship leader Roberto Rolfo.
The pre-season favourites to challenge the Turkish rider, MV Agusta’s PJ Jacobsen and CIA Insurance Honda’s Jules Cluzel, have thus far scored 10 and no points respectively.
While it remains to be seen just how competitive the Puccetti rider will be this weekend, Aragon has proven to be a fruitful track for him, with Sofuoglu taking victory in the last three rounds at the Spanish venue.
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