Pata Honda’s Kyle Smith finished the 16-lap World Superport race at Aragon, Spain on the podium in third place.
Scoring his first WSS podium with the team at a circuit he calls home, Smith struggled during the first few laps to find pace but eventually settled into a rhythm to take the third podium spot.
The CBR600RR rider enjoyed a battle with Gino Rea for most of the race and managed to create a healthy gap on the tenth lap and finished just two-seconds behind second place finisher Patrick Jacobsen.
The fourth-round of the championship takes place next weekend 17-19 April at the team’s home circuit at Assen, the Netherlands where Smith will be fighting for another podium place.
Kyle Smith - 3rd
Kyle Smith I am so happy to be on the podium for the first time in Supersport and especially here with my family and friends around me. This weekend hasn’t been easy as we have worked towards finding the right setting for the CBR600RR and I felt that I had more chance of a podium at the last two rounds. However, I settled into the race and thought if I can’t be the fastest then to be the most consistent so concentrated on getting good consistent lap times and it brought me the podium. I’m really chuffed with the result and we just have some things to work on ahead of Assen next weekend. Pieter Breddels
Pieter Breddels At the beginning of the race Kyle immediately lost some time with the front runners, which was a real shame as once he got going in the race he was improving and closing the gap quite fast, in the end he was just two-seconds short of second place, but he scored his first WSS podium and we’re really happy with that. Hopefully now he has the taste for the podium and we’re looking forward to going to our home race with a third place under our belts and seeing what we can do there.
Race Results
1 Kenan Sofuoglu 30m47.195s TUR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing2 Patrick Jacobson +3.224s USA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres3 Kyle Smith +5.695s GBR HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team4 Gino Rea +11.281s GBR HONDA CIA Landlords Insurance Honda5 Lorenzo Zanetti +11.334s ITA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse6 Alex Baldolini +16.639s ITA MV Race Department ATK#257 Fabio Menghi +17.010s ITA YAMAHA VFT Racing8 Dominic Schmitter +18.801s SUI KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven9 Christian Gamarino +24.178s ITA KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven10 Roberto Rolfo +24.655s ITA HONDA Team Lorini
Championship Standings
1 Kenan Sofuoglu 55 pts TUR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing2 Patrick Jacobson 42 pts USA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres3 Ratthapark Wilairot 36 pts THA HONDA CORE Motorsport Thailand4 Gino Rea 35 pts GBR HONDA CIA Landlords Insurance Honda5 Lorenzo Zanetti 31 pts ITA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse6 Kyle Smith 29 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team7 Alex Baldolini 26 pts ITA MV Race Department ATK#258 Jules Cluzel 25 pts FRA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse9 Roberto Rolfo 24 pts ITA HONDA Team Lorini10 Dominic Schmitter 16 pts SUI KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven
