Pata Honda’s Michael Van Der Mark cruised to his maiden World Supersport win at his home track of Assen this afternoon, and set a new lap record in the process. In the end he had a nine second lead over Kawasaki Intermoto’s Florian Marino, Yakhnich Jules Cluzel, and DMC Panavto-Yamaha’s Kev Coghlan.

Mahi Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu was the quickest rider out of the starting blocks and led into the first corner, followed by Van Der Mark. But on lap two the Turkish rider went wide and the Dutch lad went into the lead – much to the delight of the home crowd. CIA Insurance Honda’s Jack Kennedy was able to take advantage of Sofuoglu’s mistake to go up to third.

Elsewhere with sixteen laps remaining Coghlan was scrapping it out with Kawasaki Intermoto’s PJ Jacobsen for seventh with the Scot successfully holding off the charge of the diminutive New Yorker.

Sofuoglu managed to re-group and went from fifth, up to third and got the better of Kennedy on lap four. A lap later the fight for fifth intensified into a four way battle between Pata Honda’s Lorenzo Zanetti, Kennedy, Yakhnich’s Jules Cluzel and Coghlan. But Kennedy crashed while trying to over take his fellow Celt, Coghlan at Haarbocht. He remounted but soon returned to the pits, ending his hopes of taking home any points for his team today.

With Kennedy out of the scrap for fourth Coghlan decided to make an impact and made a move on Zanetti to go into fifth and had Cluzel as his next target with ten laps left. At the front Van Der Mark continued to improve on his race-pace and set a new lap record of 1'38.537 and by the tenth rotation had a two second lead.

Sofuoglu was going so well and was closing in on second place, but the former triple champ experienced a technical issue and dropped back down the standings and ended the race in the pits, leaving Coghlan to go back into fourth.

But the Perthshire lad seemed to lose some pace and slipped back. Zanetti was able to take advantage of this and passed Coghlan on the final chicane to take fourth, only for the Scot to retake the place on the penultimate lap, followed by Zanetti and Rolfo who completed the top five. Com Plus Racing’s Fraser Rogers finished outside the points in nineteenth.

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