This Just In from Steve Reeves of Australia:

The final round of the 2001 Yamaha Xtreme Tri-State Series is shaping up as one of the closest fought rounds gauging from the lap times posted at the end of today’s two qualifying sessions.

Current Yamaha Formula Xtreme points leader, Radar’s Team Yamaha rider Robbie Baird, will start from the second position on the grid after his time was beaten in the final minutes by Honda’s Alex Gobert.

Baird had sat atop the leaders board for much of the final session with a time of 1:34.155, before being pipped by Gobert who stopped the clocks with a 1:34.197.

“It would have been great to have grabbed pole, but I’m happy with the times that we set,” said Baird. “I was a bit surprised as I was able to get into the 1:33s yesterday, but couldn’t get close to that today. I think the higher track temperature had something to do with that.”

Completing the front row were New Zealander Tony Rees on the Bikebiz Yamaha YZF-R1 and Honda-mounted Josh Brookes.

Craig Coxhell and Jamie Stauffer will start their Radar’s Team Yamaha’s off the second row of the grid after setting the sixth and seventh-fastest times respectively.

“I got caught up a lot in the traffic of the first qualifying session and that didn’t allow me to get a quick time down before the afternoon session,” said Coxhell. “In the afternoon session we tried a different tire that we haven’t used previously, but it didn’t work as planned. All I can hope for is a few good starts tomorrow to give me a chance at the leaders.”

“Everyone is going quite hard out there, showing that the pressure is on at the final round,” said Stauffer. “I felt quite good on the bike today, but my lap times didn’t reflect that. We tried a few different rear tires, but it didn’t seem to make much difference. Going by the lap times the others have set, I think we are in for one hell of a race tomorrow.”

Combined Yamaha Formula Xtreme qualifying
1. Alex Gobert,Redwing Honda1:34.155
2. Robbie Baird, Radar’s Team Yamaha 1:34.197
3. Tony Rees, Bikebiz Yamaha 1:34.239
4. Josh Brookes, Geoff’s Auto Spares Honda 1:34.273
5. Luke Phillips, Optus World Honda 1:34.687
6. Craig Coxhell, Radar’s Team Yamaha 1:34.749
7. Jamie Stauffer, Radar’s Team Yamaha 1:34.880
8. Damien Cudlin, Bikebiz Yamaha 1:34.884
9. Steven Cutting, Bar Ristretto Suzuki1:35.496
10. Jay Taylor,Taylor Racing Kawasaki1:35.820

Yamaha Formula Xtreme points after 4 of 5 events
1. Robbie Baird, 279 points
2. Jamie Stauffer, 246
3. Craig Coxhell, 239
4. Tony Rees, 203
5. Damien Cudlin, 178
6. Alex Gobert, 168
7. Josh Brookes, 130
8. Luke Phillips, 116
9. Graeme Morris, 100
10. Stephen Tozer, 84