His fastest lap in Thursday’s qualifying session kept Stobart Honda’s Michael Rutter on pole position for the Macau Grand Prix even after Friday’s second and final round of qualifying on the Guia Circuit. British Superbike regular Steve Plater and 11-time Isle Of Man winner John McGuinness both clipped over a second off their times to round out the top three in final qualifying. “The level of competition this year; I mean the bar’s moved up. We’ve all moved up over the years; fantastic machines out there. It’s all fairly close, apart from the usual boring Mr. Rutter seems to be at the front again,” laughed McGuinness who has been runner-up to Rutter for the past six-years. For the second qualifying round Rutter ran race tires and a full tank of gas, counting on his first-round qualifying time to keep him in the lead. “It’s going to be competitive especially with these three,” Rutter said about competing with McGuinness and Plater as well as fourth-fastest Ian Hutchinson. The last time Plater raced at Macau was in 2003 on a 600cc machine, making his front-row qualifying effort a surprise. “As far as I can put it, there’s four green ‘Birdy’ bikes on the grid and there’s three down and one to go,” laughed Plater in reference to the Stobart Hondas owned by Paul Bird. All three Team USA riders improved their times, although KWS Racing’s John Haner was the only one to move up in the standings. “We did a little better this morning with the limited track time we had yesterday. We knocked three-plus seconds off our time from yesterday,” said Haner. “The Americans, Jeremy, he’s flying. He’s on race pace to win. He helped me out a little bit this morning, but I could see where his bike was better than mine. We’re working on fixing mine now. All-in-all, the improvements are definitely better.” Toye, recovering from a head cold, said he was struggling in the second qualifying session. “This is one of those places when you’re not comfortable, you better not ride,” said Toye about the notoriously dangerous circuit. “I came back in, had a long pause to try and gather my energy and then went back out and did start putting some fast laps together.” On one of Toye’s flying laps he recorded the fastest time in the first timing split, but got delayed later in the lap by a rider on his cool-down lap; passing is difficult on several parts of the narrow circuit. “I really think front row was possible for sure with that lap,” said Toye. 40th Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix Macau, China November 17, 2006 Combined Qualifying Results: 1. Michael Rutter (Hon CBR1000RR) 2:27.994 *Qualifying Record 2. Steve Plater (Yam YZF-R1) 2:28.794 3. John McGuinness (Hon CBR1000RR) 2:29.101 4. Ian Hutchinson (Hon CBR1000RR) 2:29.360 5. Guy Martin (Yam YZF-R1) 2:30.064 6. Stuart Easton (Hon CBR1000RR) 2:30.066 7. Jeremy Toye (Suz GSX-R1000) 2:30.719 8. Thomas Hinterreiter (Yam YZF-R1) 2:31.156 9. Les Shand (Suz GSX-R1000) 2:32.271 10. Stephen Thompson (Suz GSX-R1000) 2:32.499 11. Frank Heidger (Suz GSX-R1000) 2:32.620 12. John Haner (Suz GSX-R1000) 2:33.689 13. Martin Finnegan (Hon CBR1000RR) 2:33.715 14. Michael Weynand (Kaw ZX-10R) 2:34.096 15. Steve Allan (Kaw ZX-6RR) 2:34.557 16. Rui Reigoto Yam YZF-R1) 2:34.628 17. Ian Lougher (Hon CBR1000RR) 2:34.858 18. Mark Miller (Suz GSX-R1000) 2:35.115 19. Keith Amor (Suz GSX-R1000) 2:35.797 20. Gerarl Muteau (Suz GSX-R1000) 2:35.924 21. Rico Penzkofer (Yam YZF-R1) 2:36.286 22. Paul Hunt (Kaw ZX-10R) 2:36.740 23. Luis Carreira (Hon CBR1000RR) 2:37.400 24. James McBride (Hon CBR1000RR) 2:37.648 25. Callum Ramsay (Kaw ZX-6RR) 2:38.137 26. Pete Jennings (Hon CBR1000RR) 2:38.516 27. Sandor Bitter (Yam YZF-R1) 2:39.487 28. Cheung Wai On (Yam YZF-R6) 2:40.026 29. Jose Leite (Suz GSX-R1000) 2:41.044 30. Joao Fernandes (Suz GSX-R600) 2:41.348 31. Craig Atkinson (Hon CBR600RR) 2:42.415 32. Sou Se Hong (Hon CBR600RR) 2:43.139