PJ Jacobsen has completed the seventh round of the 2016 FIM Supersport Race with a second place finish in the 20-lap race that took place at Donington Park in the UK. This is the best race result for Jacobsen so far in 2016, with the Honda WorldSSP rider now third in the Championship standings with five races still left to be contested in the season.
Jacobsen had a good start from second place on the grid and, after leading the race for half of the opening lap, he was overtaken by current series leader Sofuoglu, who was able to pull away and put a two-second gap between himself and last year’s Vice Champion. PJ was able to hold on to second place from a determined Randy Krummenacher, who tried without success to get past the American.
As the race entered its final quarter, Jacobsen was constantly the quickest rider on track; he was able to consolidate second place in the late stages, while trying at the same time to have one last push victory. The young American was able to narrow the gap to the lead to 1.2s at the start of the penultimate lap, but despite the effort, he ran out of time to complete the comeback.
Patrick Jacobsen 22nd
At the beginning of the race I let Sofuoglu get away a bit too much, because honestly I thought that tyre wear would have been higher than it turned out to be in the end. With seven laps to go I started pushing to try and bridge the gap to Kenan but two laps afterwards I almost had a big highside and that told me I was on the tyre limit already. I did all I could but obviously it didn’t pay off, but I want to thank the guys for their amazing effort, because we’re getting there and we’re back in the game. I believe that from now on we’ll have the chance to be at the sharp end of the field at every track.
Pieter BreddelsTechnical Manager
PJ did a good job in keeping calm despite seeing Sofuoglu pulling away and Krummenacher getting closer. In the final stages he did his best to get back near the lead, but it was simply a bit too late. He rode a solid race and that’s his best result of the season so far, which put him back to third in the standings. We’re pretty happy with our weekend and we are now looking forward to some more of the same at Misano. It’s good to be back on the podium but we must keep the momentum going and be up there on regular basis.
