FIM Supersport World Championship Vallelunga, Italy September 19, 2008 Provisional Qualifying Results (wet conditions, all on Pirelli tires): 1. Matthieu LAGRIVE (Honda CBR600RR), 1:54.362 2. Jonathan REA (Honda CBR600RR), 1:55.427 3. Gianluca NANNELLI (Honda CBR600RR), 1:55.858 4. Josh BROOKES (Honda CBR600RR), 1:55.954 5. Chris MARTIN (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:55.957 6. Barry VENEMAN (Suzuki GSX-R600), 1:55.996 7. Mark AITCHISON (Triumph Daytona 675), 1:56.268 8. Joan LASCORZ (Honda CBR600RR), 1:56.324 9. Didier VAN KEYMEULEN (Suzuki GSX-R600), 1:56.329 10. Ivan CLEMENTI (Triumph Daytona 675), 1:56.952 11. Terence TOTI (Suzuki GSX-R600), 1:56.960 12. Eugene LAVERTY (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:57.315 13. Josh HAYES (Honda CBR600RR), 1:57.382 14. Broc PARKES (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:57.534 15. Andrew PITT (Honda CBR600RR), 1:57.607 16. Graeme GOWLAND (Honda CBR600RR), 1:57.763 17. Robbin HARMS (Honda CBR600RR), 1:57.775 18. Balazs NEMETH (Honda CBR600RR), 1:57.785 19. Gianluca VIZZIELLO (Honda CBR600RR), 1:57.931 20. Alex CUDLIN (Triumph Daytona 675), 1:58.286 More, from a press release issued by Parkalgar Honda: Parkalgar-Honda Latest News – Hayes shows promise on debut for Parkalgar Honda AMERICAN Josh Hayes impressed on his debut appearance for Parkalgar Honda at Vallelunga in Italy at the 11th round of the World Supersport Championship today, taking 13th in first qualifying despite treacherous wet conditions on his first visit to the circuit. Hayes, 33, from Gulfport in Mississippi, is racing for the Parkalgar Honda team for the final three rounds of the 2008 season in a bid to show his ability on the World stage. It was a tough debut at a new circuit, on a new bike and in wet conditions for the double AMA Formula Extreme Champion. Portuguese rider Miguel Praia measured his performance in the tricky conditions to bring his Parkalgar Honda home in 23rd place behind provisional pole sitter, Honda’s Matthew Lagrive. The World Supersport race takes place at 1320 on Sunday, September 21st, with final practice and qualifying sessions tomorrow at the 4.11km circuit. Simon Buckmaster, Parkalgar Honda Team Manager: “The weather is wet and cool, which combined with a new team and bike, has made Josh’s job as difficult as possible today. He has handled the pressure well and despite a weather-induced crash this morning I think he has shown real promise. He is ahead of World Champion elect Andrew Pitt, so that is a simple measure of his ability. “I think there is a lot more to come from Josh as he gels with the bike and learns the circuit he is quickest in the first sector, fourth in the final sector and his ideal lap time was half a second faster than his qualifying. He needs to work on his middle sector and he will be well inside the top 10. “Miguel posted his fastest lap at the very end and took a controlled approach to a wet and difficult qualifying session. Whatever weather conditions we face tomorrow, the Parkalgar Honda team and riders are ready to step up to the mantle and improve their qualifying positions.” First Qualification 1: M Lagrive, FRA, Honda 1:54.362 2: J Rea, GBR, Honda +1.065 3: G Nannelli, ITA, Honda +1.496 4: J Brookes, AUS, Honda +1.592 5: C Martin, GBR, Kawasaki +1.595 6: B Veneman, NED, Suzuki +1.634 13: JOSH HAYES, USA, PARKALGAR HONDA +3.020 23: MIGUEL PRAIA, POR, PARKALGAR HONDA +4.438. And now, the word from Josh Hayes himself: FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Hey guys, today was quite eye opening. Us AMA racers don’t get enough wet practice for racing in Europe. Practice was going good on a drying track till I binned it with 10 minutes to go. Missed out on the rest of the session. It was pissing rain really good for qualifying and I was running 5th-7th until 10 minutes to go. I ended up 13th, P1 in the 1st split, P4 in the 3rd split, and a cruddy P24 in the 2nd split. After crashing this morning, I knew it would be crap to do that to the boys again knowing the weather will be good from here on out. I just wasn’t leaning on it in the MANY 1st-gear corners. Tomorrow will be quite the learning curve also. The Parkalgar team has developed their suspension a different direction from my Erion equipment. So tomorrow I get to find out how their bike works in the dry along with learning new tires and finding some real brake markers for the dry. I’m looking forward to the challenge. Matt (Lynn) is doing well. I just saw a series of pictures from his get-off in qualifying. Pretty amazing stuff. The bike swapped ends several times from hitting a river in a 3rd-gear left. He was thrown OFF the bike and rode with both feet off the right side of the bike into the gravel, where he tested the Italian mud consistency. Bastard ruined my only good Arai rain visor, too! He is pretty battered and bruised, but will be back in action tomorrow. Practice didn’t go too well before that with electrical gremlins keeping him in the pits most of practice. Cheers… Josh Hayes Vallelunga, Italy More, from a press release issued by HANNspree Ten Kate Honda: World Supersport Championship round 11 Vallelunga, Italy 19 September 2008 After drying out from monsoon conditions at Donington Park two weeks ago, the HANNspree Ten Kate World Supersport team received another soaking at Vallelunga in Italy today. In spite of a low-speed crash halfway through today’s qualifying session, Jonathan Rea set the second fastest time, behind provisional pole sitter Matthieu Lagrive. Rea’s team-mate, Andrew Pitt, who also slipped off at a very wet turn eight, ended up 15th fastest around the 4.1km Vallelunga circuit. The forecast for Saturday’s second qualifying session, however, suggests dry whether, giving both riders confidence of improvement for Sunday’s 22-lap race. Jonathan Rea P2, 1m55.427s All’s pretty good, really. I set a pretty fast time early on in the session and came back to the box. We wanted to find out about the bike and the track in the wet, but then I had a small off second time out. That only left me with one lap right at the end of the session and I got back up to P2, so it’s all OK. Andrew Pitt P15, 1m57.607s There’s not much to say, to be honest. I did eight laps and then crashed. I didn’t want to go out again and risk getting hurt and we could do with saving our tyre allocation for tomorrow when it’s supposed to be dry. I didn’t need to crash, but the bike felt pretty good in the wet before that. Ronald ten Kate team manager The good thing is that both riders were quite fast in the wet and were in first and second place for half the session. The downside was that both of the crashed in their second stints, but both were minor and there were no injuries and little damage. The forecast suggests that it will be a different track tomorrow in other words, dry. Results World Supersport, Vallelunga, first qualifying: 1 M Lagrive (Honda) 1m54.362s 2 J Rea (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) 1m55.427s 3 G Nannelli (Honda) 1m55.858s 15 A Pitt (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) 1m57.607s More, from a press release issued by Triumph Italia Be1 Racing: At the end of the first day of qualifying at Vallelunga, Triumph Italia Be1 Racing team takes the second provisional row thanks to the seventh best time recorded by Mark Aitchison, while his team-mate Ivan Clementi get the 10th best time of the first timed session. The weather is expected to be better tomorrow so both the rider will have to erase and rewind in order to reach the goal to be placed into the first ten positions on the starting grid. Anyhow today has brought to the team a little big satisfaction: Aitchison and Clementi recorded respectively the first and the third best time in the morning free practice. MARK AITCHISON | Triumph 675 | 7th provisional time in 1’56.268: “I had the opportunity to do even better but I slid while I was fighting with a rival. I got back to the pits and I took the spare machine; unfortunately it was in dry-trim and I was not able to find immediately the feeling with the bike despite the quick changes made by the technicians”. IVAN CLEMENTI | Triumph 675 | 10th provisional time in 1’56.952: “I have been quick without taking any chance, that’s confirm my feeling on wet tracks. I hope to repeat a good performance tomorrow”.