Turkey’s Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki) has resumed front-running service in the world supersport class ahead of the opening race in the championship at Phillip Island this Sunday.

After setting the fastest time in the final pre-season test at Phillip Island earlier this week, Sofuoglu was again the pacesetter as he set a best lap of 1min33.618sec, well ahead of second-placed British rider Kev Coghlan (Yamaha, 1:34.263).

While the session was productive for Sofuoglu, despite his bike expiring at turn one near the end of the 45-minute session, Australia’s big hope Bryan Staring (Honda) crashed at turn six and ended up 13th in the timesheets with a best lap of 1:35.109.

The crash was a real setback for the ex-MotoGP rider from Perth, who was already playing catch-up on his competitors after a condensed pre-season on the CBR600RR – basically the two-day test at Philip Island on Monday and Tuesday.

Another big-name to crash was Dutchman Michael van der Mark (Honda), who is expected to push Sofuoglu all the way in 2014.

Van der Mark (1:34.294) was fourth in practice two, behind Raffaele de Rosa (Honda, 1:34.277) and ahead of Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta, 1:34.337) and Patrick Jacobsen (Kawasaki, 1:34.366).

The two Aussie wildcards, Billy McConnell (Triumph) and Ryan Taylor (Yamaha), were 15th and 23rd respectively.

The third practice session will be held at 10:45am tomorrow, and then qualifying at 3:55pm.

Ffi Ingrid Roepers ..mobile  04 111 989 44….iroepers@irpr.com.au