Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

World Superbike Superpole Results:

1. Pierfrancesco Chili, Ducati 998RS, 2:03.103
2. James Toseland, Ducati 999F04, 2:03.755
3. Regis Laconi, Ducati 999F04, 2:03.856
4. Chris Vermeulen, Honda CBR1000RR, 2:04.018
5. Leon Haslam, Ducati 999RS, 2:04.266
6. Marco Borciani, Ducati 999RS, 2:04.280
7. Noriyuki Haga, Ducati 999RS, 2:04.654
8. Gianluca Nannelli, Ducati 998RS, 2:04.681
9. Troy Corser, Foggy Petronas FP1, 2:04.831
10. Lucio Pedercini, Ducati 998RS, 2:05.183
11. Giovanni Bussei, Ducati 998RS, 2:05.276
12. Garry McCoy, Ducati 999RS, 2:05.276
13. Ivan Clementi, Kawasaki ZX-10R, 2:05.807
14. Chris Walker, Foggy Petronas FP1, 2:06.436
15. Mauro Sanchini, Kawasaki ZX-10R, 2:06.638
16. Steve Martin, Ducati 999RS, CRASH


More, from a press release issued by FG Sport Group:

CHILI TAKES CLEAR SUPERPOLE WIN AT ASSEN

THE BOLOGNA EXPRESS: After several close calls earlier in the season, Pierfrancesco Chili (PSG-1 Ducati 998) took his first Superpole win of the 2004 season, running out the victor with a time of 2:03.103 – the fastest official lap of the weekend so far. The 40-year-old phenomenon, the holder of the fastest ever SBK lap of Assen set in 2003, was in untouchable form. He won the otherwise closely contested Superpole by over 0.6 seconds, an age even at such a long track as Assen. Currently fifth in the championship fight, two wins for ‘Frankie’ on Sunday would make the championship battle a five-way affair with two rounds to go.

FILA FORCE FIELDED: After some difficult times in recent events, there were smiles all round in the Ducati pit at the post qualifying prowess of the official factory Ducati Fila squad members, James Toseland and Regis Laconi. Toseland just edged out Laconi for the second best grid position by 0.101 seconds as he strove for his first Superpole win of 2004.

YELLOW PEARL: The Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR of Chris Vermeulen set the fourth best time of the Superpole session, earning a front row start, nut only after the 22-year-old Australian experienced some front end chatter problems in regulation qualifying. In front of his Ten Kate team’s home crowd, a front row start for the second placed championship contender was a popular result in most areas of the expansive Assen grandstands.

HASLAM STEPS ON UP: Leon Haslam (Renegade Ducati 999RS) put a disappointing 14th place qualifying position firmly behind him with an outstanding lap of 2:04.266, taking fifth place in the Superpole rankings. He managed to overhaul not only experienced DFX rider Marco Borciani but his own team-mate Noriyuki Haga, who is himself chasing outright championship glory from an overall third place. The second row was rounded off by the dramatic, all-action style of class rookie Gianluca Nannelli (Team Pedercini 998RS) who took his two year old machine to eighth, using all the track and more in his desperation to make another good impression.

CORSER THIRD ROW: With more revs and power from his three-cylinder Foggy Petronas FP-1 at this race, Troy Corser still could not quite reach the pace of his peer group at Assen, finishing Superpole in ninth position. His team-mate Chris Walker took 14th fastest time, for a fourth row start. The well sorted 998 Ducatis have been a force all weekend at this most classic of all current SBK tracks, and thus Lucio Pedercini was inside the top ten, demoting previous qualifying sensation Giovanni Bussei to 11th. Garry McCoy, an experienced Assen campaigner, dropped from seventh in regulation qualifying to 12th after Superpole.

MARTIN OFF: Ducati DFX rider Steve Martin had the misfortune to fall on de Strubben corner, as his front tyre lost adhesion around what is the first left-hander for almost half a lap. Failing to record a Superpole time, Martin will thus start from 16th position, one worse than his 15th starting position in Superpole.

WORLD SUPERSPORT: Karl Muggeridge (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) extended his run of pole positions this season to seven in eight attempts, ripping the record books asunder once more with his 14th career Supersport pole. His Friday time of 2:06.249 was sufficient to hold off the challenge of Sebastien Charpentier (Klaffi Honda CBR600RR) and wild card rider Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Italia), the 2001 World Champion on a Kawasaki. Broc Parkes, Muggeridge’s team-mate, starts from the front row, while another Aussie Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) heads up row two. Walking wounded rider Fabien Foret (Yamaha Italia) starts sixth after some heroics in qualifying, while would-be champion Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Yamaha Italia) was seventh fastest on aggregate.

EUROPEAN SUPERSTOCK: Gianluca Vizziello (Yamaha) took the pole position from his team-mate Lorenzo Alfonsi, by the margin of 0.5 seconds. The two-man championship battle thus continues, with this weekend Bernat Martinez (Yamaha) their closest challenger, ahead of Ilario Dionisi (Suzuki) and Kenan Sofuoglu (Yamaha).

The Superstock class kicks of Sunday’s action, with the 16-lap Superbike and Supersport races taking place in the afternoon.


More, from a press release issued by Troy Corser’s publicist:

FRUSTRATION FOR TROY

Troy finished Superpole with the ninth fastest time and will start tomorrow’s pair of 16-lappers from the third row of the grid. Troy’s disappointment came about because he was forced to use his spare bike in Superpole qualifying after his preferred number one bike suffered a problem in the afternoon session. Up until that problem, Troy was on course for at least a second row spot. Superpole was won by that veteran campaigner Frankie Chili (Ducati). The Italian used all his guile and skill to post the fastest lap in the 16-rider shoot-out. Second was James Toseland, with Ducati team mate Regis Laconi third and Chris Vermeulen (Honda) fourth.

TROY – 9th, 2:04.831

I know I should have been on the second row at the very least – if things hadn’t gone wrong in the afternoon session before Superpole. I was all geared up to use my preferred bike in Superpole and then it suffered a problem and I had to switch to my spare instead. Although there aren’t many differences between the two, the clutch was slipping differently and the front end geometry was a bit different – to make it steer better. I really felt that I could’ve gone into the 2:03s on the number one bike, but it began to make a funny sound after I had done my fastest lap on it and our chief engineer Steve Thompson decided that we couldn’t risk it in Superpole. Tomorrow, I’m just going to have to push 100 per cent on every corner of every lap. Everybody will be struggling with tyres slipping and sliding, but we’ll be struggling more because we have to try and carry that much more corner speed as we are still a little down on power.


More, from a press release issued by Xerox Ducati Nortel Networks – Scuderia Caracchi:

Third row for Garry McCoy at Assen

Garry McCoy will start from the third row on his 999RS Xerox Ducati Nortel Networks for the two 16-lap races scheduled tomorrow here at Assen as ninth round for World Superbike. The Australian rider recorded the seventh fastest after the final qualifying in the morning, but a mistake in the final stage of Superpole ruined his session relegating him in the twelfth position on the starting grid.

“I used the wrong gear in the second split and I lost a lot of time.” – said a bit disappointed Garry McCoy at the end of the session. “That’s a pity because after the first split I recorded just a small gap from the leader that I could easily recover. To start from the third row will make everything more difficult and I’m facing one of my toughest races of the season just to gain a good finish position on this narrow circuit which doesn’t allow to pass. During the qualifying session we found a good set up, the bike is very fast with the second top speed and we select the race tyres that are looking to work correctly, so I’m confident in a good performance for tomorrow’s races.”

Satisfied for his result is also Miguel Praia, which improved about two seconds his fastest lap and will start from the sixth row.

“I’m quite satisfied.” – confirms the young Portuguese rider – “This track is very demanding and I’ve been faster as yesterday. Now I hope to get some world championship point in the race tomorrow, I feel that I’ll be able to do it.”


More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

DUCATI FILA DUO OF TOSELAND AND LACONI POWER TO FRONT ROW STARTS AT ASSEN

Assen (Netherlands), 4 September 2004: Ducati Fila riders James Toseland and Regis Laconi confirmed their positive weekend qualifying performances in Superpole to take front row grid positions for tomorrow’s Dutch Round of the World Superbike championship behind Pierfrancesco Chili (PSG-1 Ducati), winner here in 1998.

Second for Toseland and fifth for Laconi after qualifying became second and third as the British rider and the Frenchman sliced three and seven-tenths respectively off their times in the one-lap dash.

“I’ve always enjoyed riding here, it’s just a great place to race at and I’m sure there’ll be thousands of British fans here cheering me on. Hopefully I’ll not let them down again!” commented Toseland. “We’ve been going well all weekend, apart from a mishap in free practice 2 when the brake stuck on and I fell off but we got it all back together for Superpole and I did a good lap. We’re as fast as anyone on race pace and have been consistently so all weekend. I’m happy with my race tyre, we’ve got the bike working well, I’m feeling comfortable and the way things are going there’s no reason why we can’t have two good results tomorrow.”

Laconi declared: “Superpole here at Assen is very special, it’s very long with lots of fast corners, and you have to be very precise and not make any mistakes. My lap was a good one, it wasn’t enough to beat Chili and James but I’m pleased to be starting the races from the front row. It’s important to start on the front row because although it’s not difficult to pass, there are a lot of changes of direction and you have to be at the front. I’m very happy with my performance this weekend because I’m learning more about the bike with the new setting and improving my riding. This afternoon we tried something different for the rear and also for the race too, so I’m feeling really good about tomorrow.”


More, from a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing:

FPR frustration with Assen grid positions

Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Troy Corser and Chris Walker both expressed dissatisfaction with their grid positions for tomorrow’s races at the ninth round of the Superbike World Championship at Assen, the Netherlands.

Troy will start from the third row after qualifying in ninth while Chris was 14th fastest in a Superpole session dominated by pacesetter Frankie Chili, who produced the quickest lap of the weekend of 2:03.103 to claim pole position.

Troy went into the one-lap shoot-out having just recorded his own best time of 2:04.570 in the afternoon free practice session. However, a problem with his preferred bike at the end of that session forced him to switch to the spare bike for his Superpole lap of 2:04.831.

He said: “I should have at least been on the second row. There is not too much difference between bikes but the clutch was slipping differently and the geometry was shorter in the front on the other bike to make it steer better. I knew I could do a 2:04 on the number two bike but I thought I could have gone under 2:04 on the other. But that bike had started to make a funny sound after I had done my fastest lap and our chief engineer Steve Thompson decided we could not risk it for Superpole. I am just going to have to push 100 per cent on every corner of every lap tomorrow. Everyone is in the same boat with the tyres spinning and sliding but maybe we are struggling more because we have to try and carry that much more corner speed as we are still a little down on power.”

Chris, who has been receiving treatment for a bad cold, opted to use a race tyre for Superpole but was unable to match his best time of 2:05.395.

Chris said: “I have struggled to be as quick on the second half of the lap – the fast part of the circuit – on qualifiers as I have on race tyres. So for Superpole we decided to use the race tyre that I used for my fastest lap in the morning. Unfortunately, maybe because the track temperature was so much hotter in the afternoon, it didn’t seem to work. So we now have a mountain to climb, especially as there is a long drag to the first corner off the grid. But we have made progress today as we are now consistently going 0.8 of a second faster on race tyres than yesterday. We have got the front to work a little better, which gave us more grip going into the corners as the rear wheel wasn’t lifting off the ground.”


More, from a press release issued by Ten Kate Honda:

Muggeridge Maintains A Tight Grip At Assen

Karl Muggeridge (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) secured his seventh pole start in the 2004 season, thanks to the provisional pole time he set on the opening day of qualifying. His mark of 2:06.249 was not seriously threatened for most of the final 45-minute session, which was interrupted after an oil spill reduced track adhesion during the early stages.

Muggeridge’s team-mate Broc Parkes (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) secured a front row start with his fourth place time, a time which could have been improved on but for an inopportune bit of timing; the chequered flag stopping him from securing one final quick lap by the margin of only three seconds.

The front row for the 16-lap Supersport race on Sunday comprises Muggeridge, Honda rider Sebastien Charpentier, Yamaha wild card Andrew Pitt (Yamaha) and Parkes. Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Yamaha), Muggeridge’s closest championship challenger, could only finish seventh fastest.

Muggeridge’s seventh pole of the year took his career total to 14, yet another high for the all time World Supersport pole position record. Muggeridge was nonetheless disappointed not to improve on his Friday time, despite spending almost the entire session working on a race set-up. “So far so good. I was disappointed not to improve my time from yesterday but I should have put a new front tyre in and we didn’t have time to with the interrupted session. But the bike is good on race tyres and we’re fast. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

Parkes was disappointed to miss out on a possible better grid placing but satisfied with a front row start and a good machine set-up. “The front row is OK. I’m pretty confident for the race, and happy with the front row. I’m supposed to be a racer so I hope I can do better tomorrow.”

Team Manager Ronald Ten Kate stated, “We didn’t worry about the lap time so much. We saw people getting a little bit close to us so at the end Karl gave it another shot, but at that time his front tyre had passed it best. Broc was unlucky because he missed out on a final clear lap by three seconds. He was the first man to see the flag. There is a particular problem round here with the lap times being so high it is easy to miss out. We thought we had it all covered. He was going well and we could have expected an improvement on his time but a front row start is always good work. I’m happy. I’m particularly pleased that Karl has done so well at this stage of the season, with a big points lead. It shows how mentally strong he is at the moment.”

Final Qualifying
1. K. Muggeridge, AUS, Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR, 2’06.249
2. S. Charpentier, FRA, Honda CBR600RR, 2’06.500
3. A. Pitt, AUS, Yamaha YZF R6, 2’07.038
4. B. Parkes, AUS, Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR, 2’07.052
5. K. Curtain, AUS, Yamaha YZF R6, 2’07.159
6. F. Foret, FRA, Yamaha YZF R6, 2’07.165
7. J. vd Goorbergh, NED, Yamaha YZF R6, 2’07.301
8. K. Fujiwara, JPN, Suzuki GSX-R 600, 2’07.675
9. A. Corradi, ITA, Honda CBR600RR, 2’08.009
10. B. Veneman, NED, Suzuki GSX-R 600, 2’08.083


Assen: Vermeulen On Front Row

Chris Vermeulen (Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) secured a front row start for his team’s home SBK race after a Superpole lap spent fighting some peculiar traction concerns around the high speed Assen circuit. Vermeulen chose to use the same spec of rear qualifying tyre as he had tested in regulation qualifying, but could not quite replicate third place in these circumstances and had to take fourth in Superpole.

Finishing in the top quartet still leaves him in an excellent position for Sunday’s race, sharing the front row with Superpole winner Pierfrancesco Chili (Ducati), James Toseland (Ducati) and Regis Laconi (Ducati).

It had been a tough qualifying all round for Vermeulen, at his first Assen meeting on the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade. “We had the same tyre in as during qualifying but it just didn’t react the way I thought it would. Despite that, the bike is getting better and better around here. Set-up has proved difficult so far and we have a lot of chatter, especially under braking from high speed and we haven’t had that all year. No matter which tyre we use, or what suspension setting we’ve tried we haven’t got rid of it yet. The rest of the bike is working well. There are a lot of people going fast and we’re certainly in that group. It’s going to be really close tomorrow.”

Team Manager Ronald Ten Kate gave his pre-race comments. “Chris was on it for two splits and he thought he could do it, but he couldn’t finish it on the last split. It was good that he could still stay on the front row. With the race set-up we are close but it has been very hard work. It’s a compromise here always but we have a lot of knowledge of this track, so there are still some set-up question marks. For tomorrow, in warm-up, we will try to make it better so that he can hang in there during the races. We are sure he can stay in the front group, and then it will come down to the nerves and the tactics.”

World Superbike Championship
Round 9 Assen – The Netherlands
3 – 5 September 2004
Superpole Qualifying
1. P. Chii, Ducati 998RS, 2’03.103
2. J. Toseland, GBR, Ducati 999 F04, 2’03.755
3. R. Laconi, FRA, Ducati 999 F04, 2’03.856
4. C. Vermeulen, AUS, Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR, 2’04.018
5. L. Haslam, GBR, Ducati 999 RS, 2’04.266
6. M. Borciani, ITA, Ducati 999 RS, 2’04.280
7. N. Haga, JPN, Ducati 999 RS, 2’04.654
8. G. Nannelli, ITA, Ducati 998, 2’04.681
9. T. Corser, AUS, Petronas FP 1, 2’04.831
10. L. Pedercini, ITA, Ducati 998 RS, 2’05.183