From a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing:

Favourable FPR factors thrown into the Misano mixer

Carl Fogarty and his Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Troy Corser and Chris Walker are this weekend aiming to capitalise on a range of favourable factors in order to maintain the promise of the team’s early races in the Superbike World Championship.

The third round of the championship, the San Marino round, is staged at the Autodromo di Misano circuit, a few miles inland from the Adriatic coastal resort of Rimini. This event has previously been held in the heat of the Italian summer and the switch to a cooler time of year is expected to aid engine performance before a new stage of development is available for the FP1 at the fourth round next month.

The circuit characteristics, along with Troy’s record of two wins in 2000 and six seconds, plus two pole positions, are also likely to help the FPR team sustain a positive start to the season which has seen Chris make the podium in Valencia and Troy achieve a creditable fifth in Australia.

Carl said: “This is a circuit where Troy has been quite strong over the years, so I am hoping for a similar result to the first two rounds of this season. It’s a circuit that I struggled at for a while until my double win in 1999 and hopefully Chris can learn from Troy here. It would be great if we could stay around the top six at this round before we see improvements to the engine for the fourth round at Monza.

“A good lap here is all about carrying corner speed onto the back straight so the track should suit our bike more than some others. There are a few bends where you just have to hang in there for a while so achieving a good set-up on the bike, and finding a good tyre, will be very important. The fact that the San Marion round is being held earlier this year might also help us as we still have a few cooling problems and last year the heat was searing.”

Troy said: “I have always gone well at Misano and it might be fairly cold, and even a bit wet at this time of year, which should help our engine at its current stage of development. I was seventh and tenth last year so hopefully I can improve on those results. I was only 11 seconds off first place in the second race at Phillip Island, the closest we have ever been. It was also good to finish in front of Haga in Australia, a guy who has already won a race this year, and I will be hoping for similar consistency from the engine this weekend as in that race. The lap times have been fairly close on Pirellis so everyone might be trying that bit harder, which is why everybody has been caught out once or twice.”

Chris said: “I am looking forward to the weekend. It’s always a good, fun race meeting and the spectators will be back after a couple of the quieter rounds. I think the FP1 should work well at Misano as it is not the fastest track in the world and the run into the back straight is a gradual build up through four left-hand corners, rather than from the type of slow corner where we have been struggling.”

Circuit information: Misano, Italy

Best lap: Troy Bayliss, 1:33.525 (Superpole, 2002)
Lap record (race): Troy Bayliss 1:34.913 (2002)
Pole position: Left
Circuit length: 4.060km
Corners: 4 left, 4 right
Corner radius: 28m maximum, 74m minimum
Maximum slope: 1.5 per cent

Points (after 2 of 11 rounds)

Riders: 1 – Toseland 61; 2 – Chili 56; 3 – McCoy 55; 4 – Vermeulen 55; 5 Haga 43; 6 Borciani 43; 7 Walker (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 39; 8 Martin (DFX) 29; 12 – Corser (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 19

Manufacturers: 1 – Ducati 100; 2 – Honda 55; 3 – PETRONAS 42; 4 – Kawasaki 27; 5 – Suzuki 18; 6 – Yamaha 13.