Parkalgar-Honda Latest News – Praia leads the way for Parkalgar Honda PARKALGAR HONDA’S Miguel Praia improved on his lap time from yesterday by nearly one-second but was relegated from 12th to 17th on the grid during the hotly-contested final qualifying session before tomorrow’s penultimate round of the World Supersport Championship at Magny Cours in France. Portuguese rider Praia sat out the wet morning session and gave it his all in the afternoon dry qualifying at the 4.411km twisty track. He is confident for the race that he can achieve a points scoring top 15-result. Parkalgar Honda’s Josh Hayes completed more laps than anyone in the dry afternoon qualifying session, crossing the finish line 40 times as he continued to get to grips with the tricky circuit; finishing 19th. The American set the third fastest lap time in the morning’s wet practice and will take heart from that performance. Yamaha’s Broc Parkes took pole position. The 12th and penultimate round of the World Supersport Championship starts at 1320 on Sunday, September 28th. It can be viewed free on www.worldsbk.com. Miguel: “I gave it my best effort in qualifying and while I really wanted to keep 12th and improved my lap time a lot, it was not possible. The pace in this Championship is very high and there are many good riders. I think 17th is not so bad and gives me a good chance for points in the race, I am a better racer than qualifier.” Josh: “Magny Cours is a difficult track to learn and I have struggled certainly more-so than Italy two weeks ago. Saying that, I can be nothing but disappointed in 19th on the grid, I really wanted to be in the top 10. It just hasn’t gelled with me here yet. My bike is good and I will do my best to pull it together for the race.” Simon Buckmaster, Team Manager: “Miguel has performed as we expect and at the top of his own game. He follows his season’s best qualifying of 16th at the last round with a 17th here he should be fighting for the points tomorrow, no question. “Josh has tried the bike on his American settings and is comfortable but the simple fact is the lap time is not there and we all expected him to be in the top 10. We will sit down together and talk through what we can do for the race and hopefully we will see the real, determined and fighting Josh he’ll need to be at his best to get into the top 10 from his starting position. The saving grace may be if it rains as he is obviously quick in those conditions and a potential podium contender.” Final Qualification 1: B Parkes, AUS, Yamaha 1:41.543 2: J Rea, GBR, Honda +0.369 3: A Pitt, AUS, Honda +0.938 4: D V Keymeulen, BEL, Suzuki +1.018 5: B Veneman, NED, Suzuki +1.125 6: J Lascorz, ESP, Honda +1.186 17: MIGUEL PRAIA, POR, PARKALGAR HONDA +2.216 19: JOSH HAYES, USA, PARKALGAR HONDA +2.459. More, from a press release issued by Ten Kate Honda: French front row for Ten Kate duo HANNspree Ten Kate Honda World Supersport Championship, round 12 Magny-Cours, France 04 October 2008 Jonathan Rea and Andrew Pitt will both start from the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s penultimate 2008 World Supersport championship race at Magny-Cours. Australia’s Broc Parkes took pole position in this afternoon’s second qualifying session for the 22-lap encounter at the 4.4km circuit in central France. The HANNspree Ten Honda riders are currently separated by 11 points at the top of the points table and, despite this weekend’s practice and qualifying sessions affected by the weather, have clearly benefited from last week’s test at Magny-Cours. Jonathan Rea P2, 1m41.912s The team deserves the credit for doing such a good job this weekend. We know from the test what our race pace can be, but Broc managed to take pole again today. The bike and engine are really strong and I’m in position to get a good start and, hopefully, fight at the front until the end of the race. I’m confident in what I can do and it’s always exciting when you have the possibility to win. Andrew Pitt P3, 1m42.481s I’m happy enough with that after the crash yesterday. We just chipped away and got my confidence back in the front, which was also helped by the higher temperature today. But I really want to thank both sides of the garage for the way they helped give me a new bike after yesterday. Considering the state of the championship, it was great the way the whole team pulled together. Tomorrow’s plan is simple: I’ll just go out and try to win the race. Ronald ten Kate team manager: I’m more than happy to see both riders on the front row. Having tested here last week, we believe we have a good- race set-up for tomorrow as well. Of course, it’s an unusual position to have two riders in the team challenging for the championship win. There is only one team order for tomorrow: that everything must be fair and square. More, from a press release issued by Triumph Italia Be1 Racing: The second day of the WSS French round qualifying ends with a totally different starting grid respect to yesterday results. After the free practice influenced once again by a wet track because of the rain fallen yesterday, the riders of the team Triumph Italy Be1 Racing tried to capitalize the afternoon second timed session making improvements both in the bike setting-up and recording cutting off their times. As result, tomorrow Mark Aitchison will sprint from the eleventh position of the starting grid while his team-mate Ivan Clementi will start from the fourteenth one. In the STK600 race the young Davide Fannelli started from the back-lines since he only had one session of qualifying at his disposal to learn the track. At the green light he kept the position, avoiding to be involved in a multiple crash which however made him losing the pack fighting for the best positions. He passed the chequered flag in nineteenth place. IVAN CLEMENTI | Triumph 675 | 14th Classified in 1’43.377: “Despite we had just little time to work we had however done an excellent job. I could have started very more ahead, within the second row; unfortunately during my best lap, on the end of the session, on the last long corner, I found a slower rider on my trajectory who brought away from me the chance to sprint from the seventh place. Tomorrow my goal is to finish into the top-10”. MARK AITCHISON | Triumph 675 | 11th Classified in 1’43.259: “I would have liked to have more time in order to work on the bike trim, but also this time the weather influenced our job. I grabbed an excellent starting position anyway and I feel confident to succeed to improve the set-up further in the morning warm-up. I think I can aim to play a race among the bests”. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Parkes sublime in final Supersport qualifying Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) secured an outstanding seventh pole of the season today, setting a new Magny-Cours Supersport best of 1’41.543 seconds in the process. Fabien Foret (Yamaha World Supersport Team) showed dramatic improvements in his qualifying performance with some dry track time at his disposal, and went 16th fastest from 30 riders. Parkes has a remarkable record at Magny-Cours, and after final checks of the set-up in warm-up tomorrow morning he faces 22-laps of the 4.411km circuit in his quest to win his second race of the season on the YZF-R6. His team-mate Foret has also won a single race in 2008, but his day two performance can also be considered a victory of sorts, after coming back so strongly at his home circuit after serious injury. Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) improved on his Friday performance to secure a ninth place grid slot, 1.6 seconds from Parkes’ pole. David Salom (Yamaha Spain World Supersport) used his dry track time to go 18th in the rankings, making for a fifth row start. Broc Parkes (1st – 1’41.543 – Yamaha World Supersport Team) “It’s awesome to take my seventh pole of 2008 but we just want to convert that into a race win on Sunday, and we are still working on some aspects of race set-up. We have not had that many laps, because of the weather. In Vallelunga we had a bike that worked well towards the end of the race. Today we have made it a bit better at the start while trying to keep the speed at the end. We used the sessions really well. At the end I put one lap down and got a new record, even though I felt that the grip wasn’t even as good as it was here last year.” Fabien Foret (16th – 1’43.664 – Yamaha World Supersport Team) “I didn’t want to make any plan before I came here but after yesterday afternoon I was not too fast, and a little stressed. I am so happy about to day because I feel like I am really back, even if I am still only 85%. So to get into the top 16 was not so bad. My dry laps were good.” Wilco Zeelenberg (Team Manager, Yamaha World Supersport Team) “Broc was feeling good and set a great time so I am very happy for him. Seven poles this year is incredible. The bike is handling well and working the way we want. The tyre life looks good as well and I think we will run at a good pace tomorrow. I am happy when the pressure is on another team’s pitbox! It will be interesting to see how things go in tomorrow’s race. Fabien came back in better form than we could have reasonably expected. We don’t have Superpole in Supersport, but if we did, he would have been in it. He is a little tired now, and he has some difficulties changing direction still. But he went incredibly well in qualifying for his first weekend back.” Massimo Roccoli (9th – 1’43.183 seconds – Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) “I am very happy today because we managed to make good use of our track time and my R6 is very fast around here. I was up on my first and second split time in my final lap but another rider got in my way on the final chicane, so I lost that chance to improve even more, and maybe get onto the second row. But I am happy because my set-up is good and my bike is going well at this track.”