Kenan Sofuoglu will attempt to defend his World Supersport crown in Qatar this weekend despite a hip fracture at Magny–Cours initially ruling him out of the remaining races.
The Turkish rider was on his final flying lap in a frantic Superpole session for the Magny–Cours round when he crashed heavily and suffered fractures to his hip.
He pulled out of the French race to head home to Turkey for surgery, and was initially set a recovery time of 12 weeks – ruling him out of the final races at Jerez and in Qatar.
Despite this, Sofuoglu did attempt to ride in Spain two weeks ago, but was unable to participate after failing a medical test.
However, the Puccetti Kawasaki rider has confirmed via his Instagram account that he would be heading to the Losail Circuit in Qatar to contest the final round and battle GRT Yamaha’s Lucas Mahias for a sixth WorldSSP title.
Twitter: Kenan is going to race this weekend. He wanted to race in Jerez but didn’t pass medical checks, he’ll try and win a… https://t.co/VLa7QlTcEs (@SteveEnglishGP)
A fourth and fifth–place finish in France and Spain denied Mahias from sealing the title at Jerez, and he heads to Qatar with a 20–point lead over Sofuoglu as he bids to become the first French Supersport world champion since Sebastien Charpentier in 2006.
Sofuoglu has endured a dramatic 2017 campaign in the 600cc series. Injuring his wrist in the pre–season, he was was forced to sit out the opening two rounds in Australia and Thailand.
He returned to action for the third round of the season at Aragon, but failed to finish after getting tangled up with Federico Caricasulo’s Turn 1 crash in the closing stages of the race while battling for the podium.
He then went on a run of four wins from Assen to Misano, and took a fifth victory in Portugal having finished second in the red–flagged German race to take a four–point lead before injuring himself.
Sofuoglu will remain with Manuel Puccetti’s squad for 2018. He will be joined by current PTR Honda rider Hikari Okubo.
