By Glenn LeSanto

Troy Corser took his second pole position of the year, setting the fastest lap time in Saturday’s Superpole qualifying session for round three of the Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island, Australia.

The regular one-lap Superpole competition was switched to a “wet weather” format as rain threatened and high winds made conditions difficult at the 2.76-mile coastal circuit. Each of the top 16 riders from qualifying had 12 laps in a 50-minute session to record their best lap.

Corser put in some fast laps early in the session and then retired to his pit garage with three laps to spare. Corser watched Neil Hodgson go into provisional pole position and then got back on his Axo Aprilia late in the session to set a time just under Hodgson’s, to snatch pole from the reigning British Superbike Champion.

Corser commented that he was probably better equipped to deal with the weather than most of the other riders, saying “I know the places where the wind is really going to hit you because I know this track so well. I’ve ridden in worse conditions here before but this is close to being as bad today. But despite the weather I really like the track and I’m confident about the race.”

Corser had every reason to be upbeat, since is Aprilia was far faster than the rest of the pack through the speed trap, recording a top speed of 310 kph despite the wind. “That really surprised me as the bike was 20 kmh under that when we tested here pre-season,” said Corser. “The bike is going really well and I reckon it could do 320 kph without the wind.” Next bike up on the speed roster was also an Aprilia, ridden by Regis Laconi, showing 308 kph through the trap. Nearest bikes to the Aprilias on speed were Colin Edwards’ Honda and Troy Bayliss’ Ducati, which both managed 300 kph.

Hodgson was happy with his front-row place. “Everything that could go wrong did go wrong yesterday so hopefully that got all our bad luck behind us,” said Hodgson, who had been knocked off by Juan Borja during Friday’s session.

“I flew by Borja really fast and I think it made him mad,” Hodgson said of the incident. “He then seemed to want to get by again whatever happened and came by me on the inside between two corners. He then lost it on the brakes going into the turn and pushed me wide onto the grass. I bailed off before I hit the tire wall but landed awkwardly and twisted both ankles and hurt my neck. It really hurts and had started to give me problems at the end of Superpole.”

Hodgson said that he feels that his bike is still slower than the top factory bikes. “Honda, Ducati and Aprilia have all moved on since last year. I’m riding a year-old bike and if I ride really well I can beat them, but if I don’t–if I am going at anything less than my best then it really shows,” Hodgson explained.

Reigning World Champion Colin Edwards of Team Castrol Honda tried without success to topple Corser in the final minute of the session. Edwards said: “I knew I was on for a fast lap on my last run but I made a mistake and nearly crashed through the final corner. The front end tucked really bad and I thought I was off to the gravel trap. It came back but by then I’d lost maybe six tenths of a second.”

Edwards was philosophical about the weather at
Phillip Island this weekend, saying “You wake up in the morning and look out of the window and either think ‘yeeha’ or ‘oh shit!’.

“Yesterday it was blue skies so we got to test loads of tires, this morning it was rain and wind. But at least we’ve now got both wet and dry set-ups so whatever the weather on Sunday there’s no excuses now.”

Edwards’ teammate Tady Okada misunderstood the wet Superpole format and didn’t go fast enough while he still had laps left, he then had to end his session at a time when he thought he still had time leftover for a fast lap. When asked if he thought the engine problems suffered at the previous rounds had been cured, he replied simply, “I hope so.” Okada finished Superpole ninth-fastest with fellow Japanese rider Akira Yanagawa 10th-fastest.

Ben Bostrom–like Edwards, a race winner in the last round in South Africa–made the front row of the grid in fourth place. Considering how far he was down the order in the earlier wet session, Bostrom had to be happy to have made the front row.

Troy Bayliss crashed on his first Superpole lap but managed to get back to the pits and out again in time to complete his lap quota. Despite losing skin off his right foot in the crash Bayliss went fast enough to land fifth place, on the second row; the second row also included Regis Laconi in sixth, seventh-placed Gregorio Lavilla on a Kawasaki and Australian Ducati privateer Broc Parkes.

As the sun went down over Phillip Island on Saturday the sky still looked angry and the wind was blowing in very strong gusts, so it’s likely that Sunday’s races will be held in similar conditions to today’s practice sessions. Most riders agreed that they would rather have it either wet or dry, rather than the difficult mix of conditions that was thrown at them today, and all would rather race without the wind except for Neil Hodgson who claimed it wasn’t giving him any problems, but he’s English so he should be used to awful weather by now.

Final World Superbike Superpole qualifying times:
1. Troy Corser, Australia (Aprilia) 1:33.576
2. Neil Hodgson, GB (Ducati) 1:33.740s
3. Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 1:33.822
4. Ben Bostrom, USA (Ducati) 1:33.922
5. Troy Bayliss, Australia (Ducati) 1:34.018
6. Regis Laconi, France (Aprilia) 1:34.114
7. Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Kawasaki) 1:34.440
8. Broc Parkes, Australia (Ducati) 1:34.517
9. Tady Okada, Japan (Castrol Honda) 1:34.536
10. Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 1:34.876