FIM Superbike World Championship Monza, Italy May 6 Superpole Results: 1. Troy CORSER (Suz GSX-R1000) 1:46.058 2. Troy BAYLISS (Duc 999F06) 1:46.360 3. Alex BARROS (Hon CBR1000RR) 1:46.511 4. Regis LACONI (Kaw ZX-10R) 1:46.597 5. Chris WALKER (Kaw ZX-10R) 1:46.978 6. Andrew PITT (Yam YZF-R1) 1:47.015 7. Karl MUGGERIDGE (Hon CBR1000RR) 1:47.082 8. James TOSELAND (Hon CBR1000RR) 1:47.133 9. Yukio KAGAYAMA (Suz GSX-R1000) 1:47.156 10. Noriyuki HAGA (Yam YZF-R1) 1:47.627 11. Roberto ROLFO (Duc 999F05) 1:47.975 12. Fabien FORET (Suz GSX-R1000) 1:48.009 13. Lorenzo LANZI (Duc 999F06) 1:48.170 14. Fonsi NIETO (Kaw ZX-10R) 1:48.240 15. Michel FABRIZIO (Hon CBR1000RR) 1:48.969 16. Ruben Xaus (Duc 999F05) no time From a press release issued by FGSport Group: Superpole Monza, Saturday May 6th 2006 CORSER THE SUPERPOLE CONQUEROR FOR THE SECOND TIME IN 2006 CORSER AND BAYLISS BATTLE IT OUT After his number one rival Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) looked to have done enough to take Superpole, 2005 World Champion Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) showed his desire to start the two 18-lap Monza Superbike races on Sunday in number one spot, taking his second Superpole win of the year with a 1’46.058 lap. His time was the best of the weekend so far, the best in the history of Superbike qualifying at this circuit, and over half a second from his previous fastest in regulation qualifying earlier in the day. It was his 36th career Superpole triumph, extending his all-time record of Superpole wins. Bayliss set a personal best qualifying time of 1’46.360 in Superpole for second place on the grid. BARROS AND LACONI COMPETE ROW ONE Four different manufacturers will be represented on the front of the grid, after Alex Barros (Klaffi Honda) promoted himself to third and Regis Laconi blasted his big Kawasaki PSG-1 Corse machine to scoop the fourth fastest time. It was Kawasaki’s best Superpole result of the year thus far. Barros, who last raced at Monza in the mid eighties on an 80cc GP machine, was only deposed from the top of the time sheets by the incredible pace of the battling Aussie duo of Corser and Bayliss, and now starts his fourth SBK meeting from the front row, for the first time in his SBK career. WALKER RUNNING WELL TO LEAD SECOND ROW Regis Laconi’s team-mate starts fifth on the grid for the PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse team, after a personal Monza best pushed him from 11th in regulation. It was Walker’s best Superpole qualifying run of the 2006 season. The top Yamaha rider on show proved to be Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) who scored sixth best time, for a second row start behind Walker. After a recent serious back injury Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) made an impressive comeback and scored seventh in Superpole, one place up on his team-mate James Toseland. KAGAYAMA SURVIVES SCARE TO HEAD UP ROW THREE Corser’s ebullient team-mate Yukio Kagayama secured ninth best time, having survived a scare under braking into the first chicane on his Superpole lap. As he hit the brakes his machine’s rear end tipped up violently, and the rear end snapped round in dramatic fashion. Kagayama’s great escape was no consolation to a disappointed Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) who had an unexpectedly lowly tenth place in Superpole, after a top four ride in regulation qualifying. Having just squeezed into Superpole in 16th place, Roberto Rolfo (Ducati SC Caracchi) sprang forward to 11th, moving up a row and setting himself up as favourite for best Ducati privateer finisher in the races. The last place on the third row was earned by private Suzuki rider Fabien Foret (Alstare Engineering Suzuki), who also hopped up one row. SUPERPOLE DRAMA PUTS XAUS LAST IN SUPERPOLE Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) headed up row four, with Fonsi Nieto (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse) and Michel Fabrizio (DFX Treme Honda) for immediate company. Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Berik Ducati) had his chances of a strong Superpole performance ruined when his bike encountered a technical problem under braking after the first split, and he had to retire, dropping to an automatic 16th out of 16. FRANTIC COMPETITION SEES TOP RIDERS MISSING SUPERPOLE CUT Riders of proven ability, like Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France Ipone) and Max Neukirchner (Pedercini Ducati) experienced problems that dropped them from the top 16 qualifiers for Superpole. Gianluca Nannelli (DFX Treme Honda) was a lowly 22nd, but a serious doubt for the race itself is Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France Ipone) who suffered a high-speed fall on Friday. Cleared by medical checks but still not feeling fit to ride, Abe missed out Saturday’s timed and untimed practice sessions, and will make a decision about racing on Sunday during morning warm-up. The Petronas triples of Steve Martin and Craig Jones were, as expected, simply outgunned down Monza’s straights, with Martin 23rd and Jones 30th fastest in qualifying. WORLD SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIP Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) once more dismantled the previous track best in the Supersport class, setting a hugely impressive lap of 1’50.580, even faster than the 1’50.7 he believed was possible after his Friday provisional pole. It was Charpentier’s fourth straight pole of the year, as he goes for win number three. It now makes him equal best qualifier in Supersport history, having joined Karl Muggeridge on a total of 15. Second fastest rider at Monza was local hotshot Gianluca Vizziello (Yamaha Team Italia) even if he was over a second behind the lead. Megabike Honda rider Katsuaki Fujiwara was third at his team’s home race, while Charpentier’s closest championship challenger, Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany), claimed the last place on the front row with his fourth best time. Vizziello’s team-mate Massimo Roccoli scored a top five finish, ahead of Stiggy Motorsports rider Robbin Harms. The first rider to qualify thanks to his Friday best was Kenan Sofuoglu (Winston ten Kate Honda) in seventh. A massive 35 riders qualified for the WSS race at Monza. SUPERSTOCK 1000 FIM CUP Alessandro Polita (Celani Suzuki) scored pole at his local circuit of Monza, with a best time off 1’51.454. PMS Corse Kawasaki rider Alex Martinez upheld Spanish honour in second position, with Luca Scassa (EVR Corse Ormeni MV Agusta) besting the other main MV threat of Ayrton Badovini (Biassono Unionbike MV Agusta). EUROPEAN 600 SUPERSTOCK CHAMPIONSHIP Xavier Simeon (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) won the second race of the 600 Superstock season, taking his points total to 50 after his first round victory in Spain. A last lap battle with Simeon and Niccolo Canepa (Ducati Xerox Junior team) saw Canepa end up on the gravel, giving second place to the hard charging Davide Guigliano (Lightspeed Kawasaki) and third to Alessandro Colatosti (PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse). From a press release issued by Ducati Corse: Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) Takes Second Place Grid Slot In Monza Wsbk Superpole Monza (Italy), Saturday 6 May: Troy Bayliss will line up on the grid for tomorrow’s two World Superbike races at the Autodromo di Monza in second place after a thrilling Superpole battle with his arch-rival Troy Corser (Suzuki), who took the pole. Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi was unable to make much headway both in qualifying and the one-lap dash and will start the Italian Round from the fourth row of the grid. “In general I’m pretty satisfied because everything’s going quite well” declared Troy. “I’m happy with the performance on the race tyre but all weekend we’ve just been struggling with the bike which is a little bit unstable at high speed. We’ll try some minor change in the morning warm-up but I can deal with the problem. Apart from that the bike is working well and I put a good Superpole lap together. My lap looked a bit hairy but it would be nice if I could relax a bit more on the straight instead of having to work so hard. We’re reasonably happy, but we just want a good day tomorrow with some good weather and I’m sure we’ll see some great racing at the front.” “It wasn’t a good day” commented Lorenzo. “Quite simply we were unable to get the right set-up on the bike and then I was unable to get the best out of the qualifying tyre. I also made a couple of errors during my Superpole lap and here I am, forced to start from the fourth row of the grid instead of the second. Let’s hope for the best tomorrow, it’ll be tough to recover from so far back, if you don’t latch on to the leading group, you can forget about getting back up with the frontrunners”. From a press release issued by Team Klaffi Honda: Alex Barros Starts From Front Row The Parabolica this immense turn at the circuit of Monza is legendary. The whole track is a challenge for the rider. Here he may show his real performance and the power of his bike. And Alex Barros did it! In the second qualifying today he already improved his lap time. With a 1’47.218 he finished 6th after a small mistake in the last lap. Only some hours later Alex demonstrated how fast he really is. He did a 1’46.866 lap time in the free practice and was on third position. In the Superpole Alex was brilliant again! 1’46.511! This was the third fastest lap time in the competition. Only Corser and Bayliss were faster than the Brazilian rider of Team Klaffi Honda. Tomorrow Alex Barros starts from the third position in the front row. From a press release issued by Beowulf Racing: Beowulf’S Henderson Is Nobody’s Fuel At Monza! 2006 FIM Superstock 1000 Cup, Rd 2 Monza, Italy Qualifying session 2, Sat 6th May A day of rapid progress was brought to an abrupt end for Beowulf Racing’s Nick Henderson (Suzuki) at Monza today when his bike ran out of petrol towards the end of the final qualifying period for tomorrow’s second-round race in the 2006 FIM Superstock 1000 Cup. Confusion over the amount of time remaining after the session was red-flagged at the midway point led to the machine being run slightly too lean and robbed Henderson of two vital remaining laps. Despite this, the Australian ace has knocked over three seconds from his Friday qualifying time and will line up for tomorrow’s race in 21st position on the grid. After the damp and dismal conditions the riders the riders had to endure yesterday, the famous Italian sunshine finally arrived today. With it came a change of luck for Henderson. Completing 10 laps in the morning free practice session, Nick shaved 1.7 seconds from his time yesterday with a best lap of 1:55.527. Although still in 27th place on the scoresheet, Nick took heart from the fact that he had hauled the Beowulf Suzuki up to being the third fastest bike on the track, clocked at 182.4mph through the speed trap. Things were beginning to look promising for the British team, based at Shepton Mallet in Somerset. True to form, Nick beat his Friday time with his first flying lap of the afternoon qualifying period. Making steady progress, the session was temporarily halted to allow the track to be cleared of the crashed machines of Luca Scassa (MV Augusta) and Matej Smrz (Honda). Both riders were reported to be without serious injury. Expecting the stoppage time to be deducted from the remainder of the session, and knowing that Henderson could still make further headway up the grid, the team elected not to refuel his machine. It was only when the session recommenced that they saw it would be run for the full time allowed. Frantically signaling Henderson to pit again and refuel, the Australian made the choice to stay out and make the best he could from his final few laps. Yesterday Nick had mentioned that he wanted to be two seconds faster today. His final full lap of 1:54.062 was over three seconds quicker than his Friday time and propelled him into 21st on the grid. Retiring at the Variante Interna chicane with 3 minutes still to be run, Henderson had also upped the pace of his machine. The Beowulf Suzuki was now the fourth quickest bike on the track, timed at a top speed of 187mph. At the end of the 30 minutes it was Italian Allessandro Polita (Suzuki) who headed the field with a time of 1:51.454. Afterwards, both Henderson and Beowulf Team Manager Andy Stone were relaxed about their predicament. “I don’t think those last couple of laps Nick missed would have made a lot of difference, to be honest” Stone said later. “The main thing is we can battle for a points-scoring position tomorrow and I’m very happy to be in that position.” Henderson continued: “We learnt a lot in that last session and can make alterations to the bike overnight which will make it faster tomorrow even without me riding it harder, which I obviously will be. That said, I won’t be happy until I’m finishing inside the top ten.” Sunday’s race will be run over 11 laps of the historic Italian 3.6-mile circuit. With Beowulf Racing now in the thick of the action, and Henderson in determined mood, it promises to be an explosive affair. To learn more about Nick Henderson and Beowulf Racing visit ~www.beowulf-racing.com~ From a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: Muggeridge And Toseland Earn Second Row Monza Starts Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) proved that his is back to his best with a fine ride in Superpole, promoting himself to the second row with the seventh best time in the session, putting himself just one place ahead of his team-mate James Toseland (Winston Ten Kate Honda). Muggeridge was forced to miss the previous Valencia round as he recovered from spinal injuries, but has bounced back in fine style at one of his favourite circuits. Toseland was fifth fastest after regulation qualifying, with Muggeridge then ninth, before Superpole altered their fortunes somewhat. Toseland could not improve on his best previous time, unlike the majority of the other top riders, including Muggeridge. Pole position was taken by Troy Corser, from Troy Bayliss. Each rider faces two tough 18-lap races on Sunday, but each has good race form at this circuit, and the Honda CBR1000RR delivers an enviable performance package in race conditions at the 5.793km Monza circuit. Ronald Ten Kate – Team Manager “To be honest, I was hoping, almost expecting, to be on the front row with at least one of the riders. But we will have to make do with second row starts from both of our riders. We also know it will be slipstreaming all along through the races; even in practice we have seen it. James and Karl have been up there in terms of race times all weekend, so I would say we are in a good position for sure. It is going to be exciting from start to finish. Karl did a really good job, he is just being confidence step by step, not doing crazy things and not pushing too hard. So the atmosphere in the garage once again is very good.” Karl Muggeridge Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (7th 1’47.082) “To go seventh after what had happened with my accident was not too bad. The second row start is OK, and so far our weekend has gone pretty much OK. My health is good, and my body is not giving me any problems so I’m quite confident for tomorrow. I like the track and I think our bike will suit it.” James Toseland Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (8th 1’47.133) “I’m not too happy because yesterday we had the bike much better and even this morning it was good. But in the free practice this afternoon we tried some new settings and modifications and I didn’t improve my time. I think that affected my Superpole lap and I didn’t use my qualifying tyre in the best way. So we will change the settings back tomorrow and I believe we can get good results.” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Troy Corser lived up to his ‘Mr Superpole” reputation with a stunning performance at the end of the 16-rider Superpole shoot-out in today’s World Superbike qualifying at Monza in Italy. Series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) had stormed his way round the 5.793 kilometre course and looked a certainty to claim pole position. But after a cautious start, Corser stormed back into contention with a faster second split. The third split was pure magic, with his drive through and out of the Parabolica virtually perfect that put him three-tenths-of-a-second ahead of his rival. Third quickest was Alex Barros (Honda) with Regis Laconi (Kawasaki) fourth – making it four different manufacturers on the front row of the grid. Corser’s team mate Yukio Kagayama struggled with a very painful right hand and then made a small mistake at the first chicane on his Superpole lap. It was enough to relegate him to the ninth fastest time and a third row grid place. Joining him on row three is Team Alstare Engineering Corona Extra Fabien Foret after posting his best qualifying result of the season so far. Troy Corser – 1st, 1:46.058: “After taking things pretty steadily yesterday because of the weather, it was good to be able to push harder today. The bike worked pretty well and the guys gave me a great package to use on my Superpole lap. In the free practice before Superpole we tried a new qualifying tyre and decided to use it for Superpole. I was a bit cautious on the brakes going into the first chicane, but when I felt that the tyre was going to stick ok, I started to go for it. “The second split was good and the third was perfect. For that I have to thank the whole team. Races at Monza are never easy because it’s so difficult to get a gap on the field and I think there’s going to be a lot of tactics going on. My aim is to stay in the front group, see how it goes, and then make my move when I think the time is right.” Yukio Kagayama – 9th, 1:47.156: “My right hand is a problem. I put on some strapping and that helped a lot, but after one lap or so I started to lose feeling in the hand so I don’t think it’s going to be possible to race with it strapped up. Although there are many fast corners here, there are also some chicanes and that’s where I find it hard getting the bike to change direction quickly enough. “I made a small mistake at the first chicane on my Superpole lap and the back end came off the ground. That lost me a lot of time and I could only finish ninth today. I need two very good starts tomorrow and my hand to last the distance without any big problems. It’s not going to be an easy day!” Fabien Foret – 12th, 1: 48.009: “On the positive side I managed to qualify for Superpole ok and that was good considering the problems I had in practice: things mainly to do with the rear shock. We solved the problem in the afternoon untimed practice and I felt more comfortable straight away. But I don’t think I was aggressive enough on my Superpole lap and so ended 12th. It’s going to be two long, hard races tomorrow and I need good starts if I am to have any chance of good results.”