Rivamoto’s Jack Kennedy is pleased with his sixth place finish in the World Supersport race at Portimao. It was not an easy twenty laps for the Dubliner as he was suffering from a knee injury collected in a qualifying crash, which caused him a lot of discomfort this afternoon.

The Dubliner did make an impressive start and at one point during the race found himself in fourth on only his third lap around the Portuguese circuit. Halfway through the race Kennedy was involved in a battle with Pata Honda’s Michael Van der Mark and PTR Honda’s Sheridan Morais.

But with the pain in his leg, the rider was not able to keep up with the other Honda’s and crossed the line in the same position he did at Donington Park two weeks ago, in sixth. The Irishman made a small mistake which cost him a bit of time, but he managed to ride through the pain, and the racer is pleased with how his weekend turned out.

“It was a good race for us we got away well at the start to Van der Mark and Morais, and I tried to hold on to them but I made a little mistake and went into a false neutral into one of the turns and lost two seconds on that lap, so that got me,” said Kennedy, speaking to bikesportnews.com from the circuit.

“I was trying to control the race from my pit board and it was hard out there on my own trying to lap consistently with the pain in my leg. I just dug as deep as I could to hold that position, because I wanted to get that sixth position, to match my best ever. It was tough but I managed to pull out a bit of time on the last lap, so I am really pleased with that and with the team for giving me a good bike again.

“I am in agony and I can barely walk, but I had some good physio. I just impacted my knee really hard, but it is not broken but my knee is massively swollen.”