Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Friday Morning Suzuki World GSX-R Cup Practice Times (all on Suzuki GSX-R750s):

1. Jake Holden, USA, 1:30.930
2. Chris Peris, Canada, 1:32.098
3. Javier Fores, Spain, 1:32.765
4. Matin Bauer, Germany, 1:32.176
5. Robert Ulm, Germany, 1:33.002
6. Tristan Palmer, UK, 1:33.075
7. Bruce Rulfo, France, 1:33.494
8. Roman Stamm, Switzerland, 1:33.551
9. Scott Charlton, Australia, 1:33.602
10. Hario Dionisi, Italy, 1:33.697
11. Thomas Metro, France, 1:33.932
12. Ben Wilson, UK, 1:34.095
13. Robert Jensen, USA, 1:34.158
14. Antonio Mancuso, Italy, 1:34.426
15. Zeiser Christian, Austria, 1:34.785
16. Zenon Nelson, Canada, 1:34.891
17. Frank Heidger, Germany, 1:34.985
18. Alessandro Melone, Italy, 1:35.415
19. Yoshihiro Konno, Japan, 1:35.562
20. Akira Tamutuji, Japan, 1:35.700
21. Brian Stokes, USA, 1:37.230
22. Sebastien Lager, France, 1:47.364, crash
23. Hudson Kennaugh, South Afirca, no time, mechanical


More, from a press release issued by Suzuki:

Braselton, GA (October 15, 2004) – The 2004 Suzuki Worldwide GSX-R Cup Final kicked off under cold and cloudy weather conditions. The weather today was a cool 61°F (16°C) with cloudy conditions for most of the day. At times, the sun would shine for a few minutes and slight winds would show up.

Despite the weather conditions the first practice went well. Although, there was one on-track incident that knocked a French rider out of the competition with two broken fingers. Many riders seemed to get accustomed to the track fairly quickly and lap times were already into the low 1:30’s. The Americans and Canadians had an advantage since most of them have ridden this tough Road Atlanta track but the foreign riders seemed to be catching on quickly.