FIM Superbike World Championship Valencia, Spain April 22 Superpole Results: 1. Troy CORSER (Suz GSX-R1000) 1:34.992 2. Troy BAYLISS (Duc 999F06) 1:35.175 3. Lorenzo LANZI (Duc 999F06) 1:35.203 4. Steve MARTIN (Foggy Petronas FP1) 1:35.255 5. Fonsi NIETO (Kaw ZX-10R) 1:35.351 6. Regis LACONI (Kaw ZX-10R) 1:35.410 7. Chris WALKER (Kaw ZX-10R) 1:35.452 8. Norick ABE (Yam YZF-R1) 1:35.701 9. James TOSELAND (Hon CBR1000RR) 1:35.784 10. Noriyuki HAGA (Yam YZF-R1) 1:36.115 11. Andrew PITT (Yam YZF-R1) 1:36.214 12. Yukio KAGAYAMA (Suz GSX-R1000) 1:35.670 13. Ruben XAUS (Duc 999F05) 1:36.362 14. Fabien FORET (Suz GSX-R1000) 1:36.502 15. Roberto ROLFO (Duc 999F05) 1:36.786 16. Alex BARROS (Hon CBR1000RR) 1:36.887 More, from a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: TOSELAND WORKS HARD IN SUPERPOLE FOR NINTH PLACE James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) had to ride with aggression and control in his Superpole lap to overcome the effects of an unexpected lack of traction on the Valencia track surface. As he slithered his way around the 4.005km circuit, tail sliding dramatically on the last left hand sweep in particular, he set the ninth best time overall. Despite his difficulties, James was clearly the best Honda rider on show once more. His ninth place in Superpole makes for a third row start in each of Sunday’s 23-lap Superbike races. Giovanni Bussei (Winston Ten Kate Honda) was unlucky to find the Valencia track surface wet in the morning qualifying session, and thus had little realistic chance to improve on his opening day best time as it started to dry. He this missed out on Superpole qualification, and will start from 26th place on the grid. Ronald Ten Kate – Team manager “The maximum we could achieve has been achieved by the team today. Everybody worked very hard to cure some of the problems we have. There is still some stuff we want to test in the morning warm-up for James. We are pretty unhappy about Superpole of course, because we could all see him struggling quite a bit. We didn’t get the grip we were expecting from the qualifying tyre. On a race pace the gap is a little bit smaller and let’s hope that James has his race face on tomorrow and takes the maximum results possible. For Giovanni Bussei, he is learning the bike step-by-step and making some remarkable progress in his way, and had closed the gap to the midfield quite a lot. He will enjoy his racing a lot tomorrow.” James Toseland Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (9th position 1’35.784) “I was very disappointed the way Superpole went but I tried my best. It would have been better to get a second row start so things are going to be very tough tomorrow. But if I can get a good start, who knows? My speed on race tyres is better so we’ll be giving it everything as usual.” Giovanni Bussei Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (26th position 1’37.520) “This morning we lost almost one hour of practice because it was wet and only the last 15 minutes were useable. Working on the chassis set up in those circumstances was not so easy. But in the afternoon we made little steps; but definitely better ones, so I was quite happy with what we did. We will have the time to do something more in the warm-up tomorrow morning and I’m sure we can find a bit more to allow us to be faster in the two races.” More, from a press release issued by FGSport Group: CORSER TAKES FIRST 2006 SUZUKI SUPERPOLE WIN – CORSER BOOMS LOUDEST OF THE SBK BIG GUNS Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) continued the form that gave him the fastest qualifying lap on day one to top the Superpole rankings at Valencia, his first Superpole win of the 2006 season. It was his 35th career Superpole win. He was down on previous pole supremo Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) at the first split, but made up time to take the Superpole win by 0.183 seconds. Bayliss is joined on the front row by his team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) who is proving to be a resurgent force in SBK after some early season inconsistencies. MARTIN TAKES FRONT ROW GLORY FOR FOGGY PETRONAS Working his magic on the Valencia circuit once more, Steve Martin (Foggy Petronas FP-1) secured a front row start with the fourth best Superpole time, surging his three cylinder 900cc machine ahead of a grid full of faster 1000cc machines. SECOND ROW TURNS KAWASAKI GREEN The top three riders on the second row for Sunday’s two 23-lap Superbike races all come from the same PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse stable, and are headed up by local rider Fonsi Nieto. The Madrid-based Spaniard enthused the locals after taking and holding the fastest lap for a time and until the very last rider Corser set his lap, Nieto was on course for a popular front row start. His team-mate Regis Laconi went sixth fastest in the specialised Superpole contest, with English rider Chris Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) securing seventh, completing Kawasaki’s trio of competitive entrants. Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) was in podium contention at Valencia last year, and may be once more, after posting an impressive eighth fastest time in Superpole. TOSELAND TOP HONDA AGAIN James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda) pushed his way to ninth fastest, and thus became the first rider on row three of the Superbike grid. The 2004 champion was in aggressive mood, pushing hard to record his best time in any official qualifying session. Yamaha team-mates Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) and Andrew Pitt posted tenth and 11th fastest Superpole times, their R1 machines not ideally suited to the peculiarities of the Valencia circuit. Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) failed to set a Superpole lap after crashing at the end of his afternoon practice session, and suffering a head knock in the process. Kagayama had finished regular qualifying sixth fastest, and will undergo a medical revue on raceday morning, to see if he can ride in Sunday’s races. He is classified 12th overall in Superpole, due to rules which limit any rider’s drop down the order from his original regulation qualifying position. FOURTH ROW FROLICKS Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Berik Ducati 999R) heads up the fourth row of the Valencia grid, having dropped down from seventh in regulation qualifying. SBK new boy Fabien Foret (Alstare Engineering Corona Extra) will start 14th on the grid, followed by Roberto Rolfo (Ducati SC Caracchi) and a disappointed Alex Barros (Klaffi Honda CBR1000RR). The Brazilian rider could not match his best time from regulation qualifying, and now has a small mountain to climb to get into contention for top five places at a circuit he knows very well. The first rider to miss out on a Superpole start was German rider Max Neukirchner (Pedercini Ducati), the next (18th fastest in regulation) was Michel Fabrizio (DFX Treme Honda). WORLD SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIP Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) continued his perfect run of qualifying performances in 2006 with his third straight pole of the season. His best time of 1’36.913, a new track record, was set on day one, as he failed to improve on it in the final official session before Sunday’s 23-lap race. Just behind Charpentier, Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) who is currently second in the points standings, took second best time, with Katsuaki Fujiwara (Megabike Honda) third fastest. Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) completes the front row, while Javier Fores (SLM Yamaha) took fifth for the home fans. Barry Veneman (Hoegee Suzuki) was the fastest GSX-R rider in qualifying, in seventh. SUPERSTOCK 600 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP Xavier Simeon (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) scored the win in the opening Superstock 600 round, beating second place rider Niccolo Canepa (Ducati Xerox Junior Team) by just over five seconds. Third was taken by the Team Laglisse Yamaha of Santiago Barragan, the highest-placed local rider. More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse: FRONT ROW STARTS IN VALENCIA FOR BAYLISS AND LANZI (DUCATI XEROX) Valencia (Spain), Saturday 22 April: Troy Bayliss and Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) will line up on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s round 3 of the World Superbike Championship at Valencia after qualifying in second and third position in Superpole. Just three-tenths of a second separated the top 4 on the grid as the two Ducati factory riders split two more Australians, poleman Troy Corser (Suzuki) and Steve Martin (Petronas) in fourth place. “We struggled a little bit for grip on that lap but also at the end of the free practice session I had a crash on the front and that put me off a little for the Superpole. I had to use a new front and had to push it on the out lap and that used up my tyre a bit” declared Troy. “I’m reasonably happy however because I’m on the front row and got half a decent lap in but it was still about a second and a half slower than what I’ve done in the past. It wasn’t much of a crash in the hairpin and I picked the bike up and went back to the pits but that all just contributed to not a great lap for me really. I hope we get some good weather for the races tomorrow, all the tests we’ve done here have been nice but the conditions have been quite dismal so far”. “I am really happy and my satisfaction for getting on the front row is just as great as it was in Qatar” declared Lorenzo. “I am right up there with the two Troys, but this time I hope things won’t go the same way as in the first round and I can express my full potential. I am starting from the front row, which is what I wanted, hopefully the conditions will at least be like today. If it rains, it rains for everyone but the conditions don’t worry me because in the winter tests we went quite well in the wet. The feeling with my 999 is really good, in the afternoon I seem to struggle a bit when it gets warmer but in the warm-up we will make a change that should help so I am confident of getting two good results tomorrow”. More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: Despite being down at the first split, World Champion Troy Corser made up time in the second and third sections and stormed to a Superpole victory ahead of rival Troy Bayliss at today’s third-round Valencia world Superbike Championship round in Spain. The Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider didn’t put a foot wrong on his GSX-R1000 after a slightly nervous start and his third split was absolutely perfect. Third quickest in the 16-rider shoot-out was Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati), with Steve Martin fourth on the Petronas. Corser’s team mate Yukio Kagayama suffered a fall in the closing stages of this afternoon’s free practice and was slightly concussed. He and the team decided to not take part in Superpole and so he will start from the third row of the grid. Team Alstare Engineering Corona Extra rider Fabien Foret was unable to keep his provisional third row grid place and will start from the fourth row instead. Troy Corser – 1st, 1:34.992: “I knew I was a little behind in the first section of my Superpole lap because I had run a bit wide in one of the turns and lost some time. But I knew I was good in the second and third sections, so I just concentrated on getting them as best I could. The third section was perfect and I don’t think I could’ve got round it any faster, so that made me pretty happy. “I did a long run in this afternoon’s free practice and was on the track so long I might have done a lap or two more than intended. So when I came in to put on a qualifier, it was too late. For sure the races tomorrow are going to be much tougher than last year but a lot will depend on the weather. If it rains, it’s going to be very difficult because the track is so slippery – it feels a bit like riding on ice!” Yukio Kagayama – 12th, 1:35.670: “I would like to tell you about today, but don’t remember much at all! I crashed in the afternoon and banged my head a bit and that made me forget what happened today. I also hit my right arm but nothing is broken so I think I will be ok to race tomorrow. I hope I get a good sleep tonight and feel back to normal tomorrow.” Fabien Foret – 14th, 1:36.502: “This was my first Superpole and it has been a good experience, but I am a little disappointed not to have done better. On my Superpole lap the grip didn’t feel so good and then I got a neutral exiting the last turn and had to run a bit wide. That lost me some time, so maybe I could’ve finished higher up the grid. Most of my problems here are to do with the conditions: The bike seems very sensitive to temperature changes – well that is the tyres seem very sensitive to changes in temperature. How we set up the bike will depend on the weather tomorrow, but I hope it will be dry, because this place is very slippery when it’s wet.” Final WSB Qualifying: 1 Troy Corser (Aus-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:34.992, 2 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1:35.175, 3 Lanzi (I-Ducati) 1:35.203, 4 Martin (Aus-Petronas) 1:35.255, 5 Nieto (E-Kawasaki) 1:35.351, 6 Laconi (F-Kawasaki) 1:35.410, 7 Walker (GB-Kawasaki) 1:35.452, 8 Abe (J-Yamaha) 1:35.701, 9 Toseland (GB-Honda) 1:35.784, 10 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1:36.115. 12 Yukio Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:35.670. 14 Fabien Foret (F-Alstare Engineering Corona Extra) 1:36.502. SIMEON WINS SUPERSTOCK 600 OPENER! Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Xavier Simeon won the opening round of the Superstock 600 European Championship today, completely destroying the opposition in the process. At the end of the 11-lap race, Simeon took the chequered flag more than five seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Nicola Canepa (Ducati). Third was local favourite Santiago Barragan (Yamaha). Xavier Simeon – 1st: “That was a very good race and I enjoyed myself out there today. The bike was perfect today and it made my job easy. I made a good start and was involved in a little battle with Canepa for a while, but once I got away from him, I settled down and ran my own pace. Once I was in the lead, it felt pretty comfortable and taking the flag at the end was a great way to start the season. Now I’m already looking forward to the next round!” Superstock 600 Results: 1 Xavier Simeon (B-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra), 2 Canepa (I-Ducati), 3 Barragan (E-Yamaha), 4 Pedro (E-Yamaha), 5 Gamell (E-Yamaha), 6 Giugliano (I-Kawasaki). More, from a press release issued by Team Klaffi Honda: The second day at Valencia was not so perfect for Alex Barros. He still worked a lot on the settings of the suspension of his Klaffi Honda Fireblade but the results were not so effective. In the second qualifying section he did a 1’37.040 lap time and finished 12th. In Superpole he improved this time – but even with a 1’36.887 lap time he unfortunately lost 4 places. So Alex starts from position 16 in the fourth row tomorrow. Team Manager Klaus Klaffenböck: “Needless to say that we expected some better lap times today but Alex is a tough fighter. He will attack tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing: Second consecutive front row for Martin and FPR Steve Martin will start from the front row of the grid for the second consecutive time on the PETRONAS FP1 after qualifying fourth for tomorrow’s Superbike World Championship third round races at Valencia, Spain. The stylish Australian was just a quarter of a second off the 1:34.992 pace set by fellow countryman Troy Corser, as Steve repeated his qualifying performance from the previous round at Phillip Island. Having qualified for Superpole in fourth place, as only a handful of riders bettered their qualifying times from yesterday on a greasy morning surface, Steve recovered from a problematic afternoon free practice session to deliver a typically composed and impressive flying lap of 1:35.255. And Foggy PETRONAS Racing team owner Carl Fogarty heaped praise on the achievement in an increasingly competitive championship. He said: “I think Steve’s performance on the bike has been incredible and is a reward for the whole team’s consistent effort. It is going to be tough in the races, because more powerful bikes will hold him up in the corners, but on a lap with a clear track he is as fast as anyone out there.” Steve said: “It’s unbelievable to be on the front row for two consecutive races this year and, considering the problems we had last year, I don’t think anyone expected that. I’m wrapped! It goes to show that everyone connected with the project is still putting in 100 per cent effort. We still have the challenge of the races ahead of us so I need the best start possible. Then hopefully I will have a good enough set-up to enable me to stick in there and get bags of good points. My Superpole lap could possibly have been a bit quicker, although not enough for pole position, as I had a couple of moments that were symptomatic of the grip problems I had experienced in the afternoon session, so we will have a think about that tonight. The weather forecast is not too good for tomorrow and, although nobody wants to race in the wet, it would be more of a lottery. But I have raced well here in the wet before, so anything can happen.” Team-mate Craig Jones also enjoyed an encouraging day, bettering yesterday’s time by nearly a second and finishing the morning qualifying session in 17th place with a lap of 1:37.623, which resulted in a starting grid position of 27th when set against the faster times from yesterday’s first qualifying session. He said: “The morning was probably my best session of the season so far and I am starting to get closer to the front and also to Steve’s times. We have worked really hard on the set-up and managed to make quite a lot of progress towards getting a good feeling. I was hoping we could take it a step further this afternoon but we lost a lot of grip as the temperature rose. We just need to have a good think now and put all the settings together for the race.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Norick Abe had his best qualifying performance of the season, ending the day as the top Yamaha rider after setting the eighth fastest time in superpole. The former MotoGP star is reveling in a new specification engine provided by his Yamaha Motor France squad and has been up with the top riders all weekend. Fourth place in the pre-superpole practice session suggests that Abe should be at the sharp end in tomorrow’s races. Yamaha Motor Italia riders Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt will start from the third row in tomorrow’s two 23-lap races in Valencia after setting the 10th and 11th fastest time in superpole. Both riders are finding grip levels at a premium on the Spanish track, which is not offering riders the same amount of traction they had at the official FGSport test at the venue several weeks ago. Despite running consistently strongly in race trim, Haga was unable to exploit the potential of his YZF-R1 in the one-lap superpole, struggling for rear end grip in a error-strewn lap. The Japanese star was unable to fully utilise the grip of his soft qualifying tyre and suffered a number of time sapping slides on his flying lap. While Haga lost five places from his position after the two one-hour sessions, Pitt dug deep to gain four places despite not completely eradicating the front-end handling problems that blighted him during Friday’s session. The Australian rider survived a minor scare when he lost the front end in the preceding practice session, narrowly avoiding a crash by holding the bike up with his elbow. Yamaha Motor France’s Shinichi Nakatomi found himself in the unfortunate situation of being one of the few riders to improve his time in the Saturday morning session but being shuffled back from his provisional grid position. The superbike rookie took over a tenth of a second from his best Friday lap time, but found himself dropped four places to 21st on the final grid as riders below him in the overnight standings found greater improvements. Lorenzo Alfonsi, standing in for the absent Sebastien Gimbert on the other Yamaha Motor France bike, will start from the back of the grid in his first race for the team. The former European superstock rider is not only having his first outing for the team, it is also his first race since suffering a serious injury at the end of last year. Pole position for tomorrow’s races goes to world champion Troy Corser (Suzuki) with Troy Bayliss (Ducati), Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) and Steve Martin (Petronas) completing the front row. Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) “The whole team is very motivated this weekend. For this race I have a new engine and it feels good, which is creating a good feeling in the team. There was more grip in the afternoon practice than in the superpole and it made the bike slide more easily on my time attack lap. I am happy with eighth. I am making very consistent laps and I hope that I can go and fight at the front tomorrow.” Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) “Of course, I am very disappointed to be starting 10th. After having a good test here earlier this month we are having traction problems this weekend. The superpole lap was not good. I made one mistake but also the rear traction was not as good as I had when I tried the qualifying tyre in the practice. The races will be very, very difficult for us but we will try to improve the bike overnight and work to get the best result possible.” Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) “I don’t know if it’s the rain we’ve been having or what it is but we just can’t seem to get any grip this weekend. I’m lacking confidence in the front end. During the afternoon practice I had a big slide and ended up saving it on my elbow: the bike just went down and my elbow dug in and held me up. We made a lot of changes overnight but nothing seems to be making an improvement. Nori and I both seem to have the same problems and it’s going to be a tough race for us tomorrow. The one thing we have on our side is that at least we are able to do consistent lap times over a race distance. Tonight though we will have a look to see what else we can try to make things better for the races.” Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) “It was a shame we had the wet conditions in the morning as this meant I was unable to improve my time from yesterday. Tomorrow I will aim for a good start and try to get some points. I understand the Valencia track quite well now and I am pleased that we are all finding improvements with our bikes this weekend.” Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator – Yamaha Motor Italia) “After two tests in Valencia and Misano we felt that we had made a good step forward, only to come here and find that we are fighting for grip. We came to Valencia using the same settings we had at the test, although now Noriyuki cannot make the same lap times. Our bike seems to be very sensitive to changes in the conditions and tonight we will sit down to try and further understand the problems, although with the surface here in Valencia we might arrive tomorrow morning and find it has changed again.” Martial Garcia (Team Manager – Yamaha Motor France) “Second row and top Yamaha is a good result for us. Norick is always very strong here and I am confident he can do some good races tomorrow. Shinichi is improving too but we must also remember that he is working as a development rider for Soqi suspension and this means that sometimes he is a little bit up and down in the sessions. Despite this he is a very consistent racer and I think that we can target some points for him tomorrow.”