Penz13.com BMW Racing Team: Toye earns 3rd row of the grid with 8th, Gantner up to 17th Macau–Penz13.com BMW Racing’s Jeremy Toye took the 8th spot on the grid for the 47th Macau Motorcylce Grand Prix today. The American rider got a best lap time of 2:28.775 min on board his BMW HP4 and missed pole position by 3.207 seconds only. This one went to Ian Hutchinson, who took pole surprisingly by a fraction of 0.057 seconds ahead of serial winner Michael Rutter. Toye will place himself in the third row of tomorrows grid of the 15 lap race. Team mate Herve Ganter took 17th in the final qualifying. He improved his best lap time by 3.2 seconds and went up to the high profile mid field of the 32 riders strong grid of the Motorbike Grand Prix of Macau. Toye wasn’t too happy with the suspension setting on Thursday night so his Öhlins springs were adjusted for the session this morning. Unfortunately one went a bit too far so the plan for tomorrow’s warmup is to go back a step again. Apart from that Toye is confident for the race and is looking forward to make the most out of his start. Gantner was more than happy on Friday morning. The Swiss rider got to grips with the 6.115 meters long Guia Circuit very quickly and also his BMW HP4 setting could be bettered. Gantner expects to lower his best time lap by lap in tomorrows race even further. The start of the 15 lap long 48th Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix is tomorrow, Saturday, 16th of November at 15:30 local time (8:00 MEZ) Jeremy Toye, P8, 2:28,775 We had a bit of a hard time today – a couple of changes in the setup of my BMW HP4 didn’t produce the results we were looking for. I don’t know. We go back tomorrow morning and hopefully we can go better. After yesterday’s qualifying everything went better and better, but I think now we overstepped it a bit. The race here – you never know what to expect. Usually I am a good starter and this is very keen on this track. We get up and we try to hold up with the boys and go for a good race! Herve Gantner, P17, 2:32,297 It was a lot better with the qualifying tire. I started into the session with an old tire from yesterday’s session and I had no grip at all. So then we put the Qualifyer in and I had some very good laps – I went 3 seconds faster than yesterday, that is good for me. Good. For the race – I think I will win! (laughs) No. We will try some new setups in the warm-up tomorrow morning and then we will see. More, from a press release issued by Splitlath Redmond: It’s been a busy day and half since the Star River-Windsor Arch Macau Grand Prix roared into action at 7am yesterday morning. One practice session and 2 qualifying sessions in quick succession has been a tough schedule in the humidity here but the results have been spectacular. First qualifying saw the riders improve their laptimes thanks to the changes made in the garage after the first practice session (see video for rider feedback on that session). Mark Miller after 1st qualifying: “The bike is working well on many levels and not as well in a couple others. It turns well on its side now and is stable under hard braking. We’ve got an overall balance over the massive bumps to the point of being ride-able over race distance. “ Brandon Cretu: “We improved a lot in Q1 and nearly matched my pace from last year but still not good enough as Rutter put in a 2:25.9. Ideally, need to drop about 3 seconds tomorrow to make it comfortably into the show. Bike is well improved and I am confident I can do it tomorrow with new Dunlops on and some rest. “ The tech crew from the US AMA Pro series Buell team again proved to be utter professionals and suggested some vital changes especially to Miller’s bike with a wheelbase lengthening to help the gearing and stability over the bumpy sections. Final qualifying was this morning and Mark was delighted with the results of the overnight work with the bike and continued to knock a couple of seconds off the time from the previous session. However, all was not to go entirely smoothly. Sadly whilst Mark was improving all the time so was the rest of the pack which meant Mark didn’t gain any places and qualified in 20th position for tomorrow’s 15 lap race. Brandon suffered in a more direct manner as he had to retire with a mechanical issue half way through the session without setting a better time so he will start at the back of the grid. Brandon Cretu: “We made the big show just barely. I’m happy enough considering I ran a personal best of a 2:39.3. Unfortunately something let go in the engine halfway through the session and I didn’t get a chance to go any faster. I feel bad that the team has more work than expected today so I owe them a few more pints and a good finish tomorrow.” The team, however, are delighted with the performance of the unique EBR1190RS, how the team and riders have gelled with it and how much interest it has generated. Thanks go to Dafabet as our main sponsors and to EBR for such a great machine.