MAHI Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu took an easy pole position during the World Supersport qualifying session at Phillip Island. The Turkish lad was the quickest rider out of the starting blocks, and not even charges from Pata Honda’s Michael Van Der Mark could do anything to end the dominant streak of the former champ.

With twenty minutes of qualifying remaining, Sofuoglu was leading the charge with a 1’33.053 followed by Van Der Mark. But he kept improving, and was able to out-pace himself. With thirteen minutes of lap time available Sofuoglu clocked a 1’33.042. But he wanted to do even better, and that is what he did. With a few minutes left he did a 1’32.769, smashing the 1’32 barrier, and also pulverising his own best lap record that he set back in 2013.

Van Der Mark was unable to better his best lap of 1’33.021, but still starts from second on the grid, after putting in consistently quick times, but it was just not fast enough to overpower the Kawasaki rider. Former MCE British Superbike contender, PJ Jacobsen and Scot Kev Coghlan were in a battle for the final spot on the front row, with third on the timing screen continuing to change between the two riders, throughout the course of the afternoon.

But in dying minutes the diminutive American crashed at turn 11. He was declared ok at the track side, but it was the perfect opportunity for Coghlan to go quicker than the New Yorker, and he did just that. But San Carlo Racing’s Roberto Tamburini came out of nowhere, to blast his way to third overall with a 1’33.290 pushing Coghlan and Jacobsen down to the second row.

But it is not all bad for the Perthshire lad, he heads up row two after his best time of 1’33.300. He was able to go one four-hundredths of a second quicker than the crashing Jacobsen. Yakhnich’s Vladimir Leonov rounds off that row.

Pata Honda’s Lorenzo Zanetti fell into the gravel in final seconds. He crashed at Siberia, but was OK, and starts from ninth, with Rivamoto’s Bryan Staring rounding off the top ten.

The qualifying session was red flagged with ten minutes left, but pit lane was soon swiftly re-opened. The formidable Smiths Triumph wildcard pairing of Billy McConnell and Graeme Gowland could not get into the top ten, but Aussie McConnell went a second quicker than his garage buddy, and did a 1’34.392, to place him twelfth, with Gowland starting from just inside the top twenty, on eighteenth on the grid respectively. Com Plus Racing’s Fraser Rogers starts from row eight.