Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Edwards keeps the pressure on

By Glenn Le Santo

Colin Edwards took his second successive pole position in Saturday’s Superpole final qualifying for the 13th and final round of the World Superbike championship at Imola in Italy.

Edwards, who has been fastest in the wet or dry all weekend, was last rider out for the Superpole session.

“I was a little bit edgy on the lap,” admitted Edwards. “But that’s because tomorrow is so important, I didn’t want to do anything stupid.”

Edwards’ championship rival Troy Bayliss managed third fastest, beaten to second by his own teammate Ruben Xaus. Nori Haga grabbed a front-row start with the fourth-fastest time.

Neil Hodgson will be the first rider lined up on the second row after posting the fifth-fastest time. Ben Bostrom, James Toseland and Pier-Francesco Chili join him to make it an all-Ducati row two.

World Superbike Championship
Final Round, Imola, Italy
Superpole times:

1. Colin Edwards, USA, Honda, 1:49.021

2. Ruben Xaus, Spain, Ducati, 1:49.155

3. Troy Bayliss, Australia, Ducati, 1:49.702

4. Noriyuki Haga, Japan, Aprilia, 1:49.993

5. Neil Hodgson, GBR, Ducati, 1:50.107

6. Ben Bostrom, USA, Ducati, 1:50.638

7. James Toseland, GBR, Ducati, 1:50.639

8. Pierfrancesco Chili, Italy, Ducati, 1:50.688

9. Juan Borja, Spain, Ducati, 1:50.917

10. Lucio Pedercini, Italy, Ducati, 1:51.190

11. Chris Walker, GBR, Kawasaki, 1:51.837

12. Alessandro Antonello, Italy, Ducati, Crashed

13. Hitoyasu Izutsu, Japan, Kawasaki, 1:51.856

14. Gregorio Lavilla, Spain, Suzuki, 1:51.944

15. Marco Borciani, Italy, Ducati, 1:52.282

16. Serafino Foti, Italy, Ducati, 1:53.654


More, from a press release issued by Castrol Honda:

IMOLA POLE POSITION FOR EDWARDS

Castrol Honda’s Colin Edwards scorched to his second successive pole position with the fastest time in Saturday’s Superpole final qualifying for the 13th and final round of the World Superbike championship at Imola in Italy.

Edwards, the last rider to go in Superpole, rocketed to his fifth pole position of the year aboard the Castrol SP-2 machine.

“I was a little bit edgy on the lap,” admitted Edwards. “But that’s because tomorrow is so important, I didn¹t want to do anything stupid.”

Alongside Edwards on the front row of the grid for the two 21-lap races will be Ruben Xaus while Edwards’ championship rival Troy Bayliss is third and the all-action Noriyuki Haga fourth.

Neil Hodgson recorded the fifth fastest time with the Ducatis of Ben Bostrom, James Toseland and Pier-Francesco Chili completing row two.


More, from a press release issued by HM Plant Ducati:

Second row starts for HM Plant Ducati

The British pairing of Neil Hodgson and James Toseland will line-up on the second row of the grid for Sunday’s two Superbike races at the 13th and final round of the Superbike World Championship. The HM Plant Ducati duo qualified in fifth and seventh positions respectively at Imola after failing to improve on their qualifying practice times in the one-lap Superpole session.

Rain swept across the 4.933km circuit near Bologna this morning to prevent the 31-strong field from improving the times set in yesterday’s dry first session. The conditions improved for Superpole, but the track was still damp in places. This prevented the Superbike field from attacking last year’s pole position time of 1:48.694 set by Troy Corser.

“I was up on time through the first two splits, but wasn’t as confident through the Acque Minerali due to the track conditions,” explained Hodgson in his last Superpole on board the HM Plant Ducati. “The guys in front of me were more aggressive, but I was just happy to come home safely and not make any unnecessary mistakes. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s races and hope for better luck than I had here last year.”

Toseland lost a similar amount of time on his Superpole lap: “I was about a second down on where I should have been and that would have possibly seen me qualify on the front row. However, it was difficult to read the track conditions and I have to be content with a place on the second row. The weather has made it difficult for everyone in terms of race set-up for tomorrow, but if anything that should even things up.”


More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
Round 13 – Imola (Italy)
27-29 September 2002

XAUS & BAYLISS (DUCATI INFOSTRADA) SECOND AND THIRD IN IMOLA SUPERPOLE – BOSTROM (DUCATI L&M) IMPROVES TO SIXTH

Ducati Infostrada riders Ruben Xaus and Troy Bayliss will start tomorrow’s thirteenth and final round of the World Superbike Championship at Imola from second and third position on the grid, after Honda’s Colin Edwards took pole in the decisive Superpole session. Ben Bostrom (Ducati L&M) moved up from a qualifying ninth to sixth place and a row 2 start for Sunday’s two races.

The morning’s second and final qualifying session was disrupted by rain, preventing any improvement on yesterday’s time, but the weather conditions turned favourable for the afternoon free practice hour and Superpole. Troy’s time of 1:49.702 was good enough for third place on the grid, sixth-tenths of a second behind the pole time set by Edwards.

“I thought my Superpole lap was faster than it was” declared Troy, “and it would have been nice to have been on pole for the final race of the year here at Imola in front of all the Ducati fans, but it wasn’t to be. Now I feel like Colin felt a couple of months ago, but I’m determined to turn things around tomorrow. We’ve got a couple more things to try in the morning after we lost today’s qualifying session because of rain. I’m feeling really good on the bike and tomorrow I’m certainly going to give it everything I’ve got tomorrow to beat Colin and take the title.”

Ruben Xaus (Ducati Infostrada) continued his excellent weekend form to take second place on the grid, just a fraction behind Colin. “Things have gone really well for me this weekend” declared Ruben. “The bike is working so well and so are the tyres and I really love this circuit. Tomorrow the real battle is between Troy and Colin but I hope to be able to get in there with them and win the race. My Superpole lap was quite good today, that must mean I’m getting better at it all the time!”

Ben Bostrom (Ducati L&M) was not entirely satisfied with his Superpole lap despite moving up from ninth overnight to sixth on the grid. “That was a terrible Superpole lap and I don’t really know why” declared Ben. “After the wet morning session, I had programmed myself to lap in a certain way, where to brake and where to accelerate and I think I just carried on like that in Superpole. The bike feels great, the tyres are also great, it’s just that the rider wasn’t working well today. I have no complaints, sixth place on the grid means I will just have to work a bit harder tomorrow, but I’m sure it’s going to be a good race”.


More, from a press release issued by Playstation 2 FGF-Aprilia:

HAGA GRABS FRONT ROW AT IMOLA

Imola (Bologna), Saturday 28 September 2002 – Noriyuki Haga and the Playstation2 – FGF Aprilia Team make strides forward in the final qualifying of the Imola Grand Prix, the last in the 2002 World Superbike Championship. The Japanese ace, who was seventh on Friday, put on an excellent performance in the Superpole and grabbed a place on the front row with fourth quickest time.

EXCELLENT START – Haga is making his debut on the Santerno circuit and is therefore at a disadvantage over his rivals, who raced here in 2001. Rain in the morning complicated matters and made the second qualifying pretty well useless. This meant that Haga was unfortunately unable to carry out a long-distance test on the tyres that would appear to be best for tomorrow’s race.

NORIYUKI HAGA (Playstation2 – FGF Aprilia Team rider) – “I’d have liked to do more laps in the dry to get to know the track better and complete our work on the bike settings. There’ll be two riders out for the world championship tomorrow, so I’ll just try to race without taking any risks and without getting in the way. A rapid start to get out in front of everyone would be the best thing to do! The public and the atmosphere here at Imola are absolutely fantastic and I’d like to give all Aprilia fans a race to remember.”

GIACOMO GUIDOTTI (Technical Manager of the Playstation2 – FGF Aprilia Team) – “The weather played a mean trick on us: we haven’t got the references our rivals have and we really needed to stay out longer on the circuit. We’ve got an idea of the tyres that might be best for the race and we’ll try them out during the warm-up tomorrow. The technical situation’s good, though. We haven’t got any particular problems and I’m sure Haga will be able to give us two great races.”


More, from a press release issued by Benelli Sport:

Benelli Sport foiled by rain

The last round of the World Superbike championship, taking place at Imola, Italy, was today was a victim of a surprise rain shower. Rain fell heavily before the final qualifying session today spoiling Benelli Sport¹s chances
of improving on Friday¹s 20th position on the grid.

Unable to improve his lap times on the slippery surface rider Peter Goddard now faces the uphill task of racing from the back of the fifth row.

“We had hoped we’d get some good track time today to get us further up the grid,” explained Goddard. “But once the rain started that was it. I just hope it doesn¹t rain again on Sunday.”

Fortunately, the weather forecast for Sunday is for sunshine, so Peter should get his choice of weather for his battle up through the field during
the two races.

This weekend marks the end of the first full year of World Superbike participation by the Benelli Sport team. They first entered the World
Championship in the middle of the 2002 season at Misano, effectively the San Marino based team’s home round.

While Goddard has his own personal battle to improve on his starting position, there will be another battle going on up front between
championship leader Colin Edwards and Troy Bayliss. Edwards leads Bayliss by only one point going into the final two races of the season.