FIM Superbike World Championship Brno, Czech Republic July 21, 2012 Final Qualifying Results, After Superpole (all on Pirelli tires): From Superpole Knockout Session Two (wet-to-drying conditions): 1. Tom SYKES, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:58.010 2. Carlos CHECA, Spain (Ducati 1098R), 1:58.470 3. Eugene LAVERTY, Ireland (Aprilia RSV4 Factory), 1:58.741 4. Davide GIUGLIANO, Italy (Ducati 1098R), 1:58.789 5. Marco MELANDRI, Italy (BMW S1000RR), 1:58.885 6. Jonathan REA, UK (Honda CBR1000RR), 1:59.560 7. Leon HASLAM, UK (BMW S1000RR), 1:59.583 8. Michel FABRIZIO, Italy (BMW S1000RR), 1:59.621 9. Chaz DAVIES, UK (Aprilia RSV4 Factory), 1:59.748 10. Jakub SMRZ, Czech Republic (Ducati 1098R), 1:59.871 11. David SALOM, Spain (Kawasaki ZX-10R), no time recorded 12. Ayrton BADOVINI, Italy (BMW S1000RR), no time recorded From Superpole Knockout Session One (dry conditions): 13. Leon CAMIER, UK (Suzuki GSX-R1000), 1:59.439 14. Max BIAGGI, Italy (Aprilia RSV4 Factory), 1:59.453 15. Loris BAZ, France (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:59.627 16. John HOPKINS, USA (Suzuki GSX-R1000), 1:59.973 The Rest of the Grid: 17. Lorenzo ZANETTI, Italy (Ducati 1098R), 2:00.591 18. Hiroshi AOYAMA, Japan (Honda CBR1000RR), 2:00.693 19. Maxime BERGER, France (Ducati 1098R), 2:00.978 20. Alessandro POLITA, Italy (Ducati 1098R), 2:02.023 21. Leandro MERCADO, Argentina (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 2:02.952 22. Norino BRIGNOLA, Italy (BMW S1000RR), 2:03.524 23. Viktor KISPATAKI, Hungary (Honda CBR1000RR), 2:04.259 More, from a press release issued by Infront Motor Sports: Magnificent 7th Tissot-Superpole for Sykes and Kawasaki Brno (Czech Republic), July 21, 2012 A much delayed finish to the Tissot-Superpole session, due to an oil spill and the time required to clean up the track afterwards, saw Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) take pole for the seventh time this season. His winning lap time of 1 minute 58.010 was a new best lap. The final running of Tissot-Superpole 2 was declared wet and thus the top 12 riders who had made it through to that stage battled it out in a 20-minute session, which ended in dry conditions. Second fastest after the delays was Carlos Checa (Althea Racing Ducati) with the front row completed by Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) and Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Ducati). Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) was fifth and Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) sixth. Tom Sykes: “I’m very happy to take pole again but I’d swop this for 25 points in the championship any day of the week! It’s fair to say that Kawasaki have got the sheer speed in this championship and it’s no secret we still need to work on the balance of the bike for the race, but this is coming and today we made the best of the situation.” Carlos Checa: “For us this is a track that is quite difficult so to be in second place fills me with confidence for tomorrow. The team did a great job, basically we found a really good set-up in Aragon and moving to here, it’s working well again. We’ll try and do our race and see what happens. The championship is still open and we’ll be trying our best until the end.” Eugene Laverty: “It’s been a good weekend for us so far, we’ve been on the chart from the first practice session and to be on the front row is the most important thing here. We’ve been working strong for the races tomorrow, we’re not sure about tyre life but it’ll be the same for everyone. Brno is a circuit where I’ve struggled at in the past so this is a good result.” Championship leader Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing) missed out on qualifying beyond Superpole 1 and will therefore start from 14th place on the grid. Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) put in a seventh place performance and alongside him on the second row of the grid will be Michel Fabrizio (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) who took the last place on the second row. Chaz Davies (ParkinGO MTC Racing Aprilia) secured a top nine place, with Jakub Smrz (Liberty Racing Team Effenbert) inside the top ten at his home round, despite a fall in the first attempt at running Superpole 2. A great privateer ride from team Pedercini Kawasaki rider David Salom put him 11th, although both he and Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) were both involved in the Superpole 2 crash that claimed four riders, damaging their bikes so badly that they could not continue in the ‘wet’ Superpole 2 that decided the final grid places for the top 12 riders. Times: 1. Sykes (Kawasaki) 1’58.010 average 164.823 kph; 2. Checa (Ducati) 1’58.470; 3. Laverty (Aprilia) 1’58.741; 4. Giugliano (Ducati) 1’58.789; 5. Melandri (BMW) 1’58.885; 6. Rea (Honda) 1’59.560; 7. Haslam (BMW) 1’59.583; 8. Fabrizio (BMW) 1’59.621; 9. Davies (Aprilia) 1’59.748; 10. Smrz (Ducati) 1’59.871; 11. Salom (Kawasaki) 1’59.279; 12. Badovini (BMW) 1’59.154; 13. Camier (Suzuki) 1’59.439; 14. Biaggi (Aprilia) 1’59.453; 15. Baz (Kawasaki) 1’59.627; 16. Hopkins (Suzuki) 1’59.973; etc. World Supersport Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Lorenzini) took pole in the Supersport category after an intense session that was too close to call right until the end. Jules Cluzel (PTR Honda) was second only 0.002 seconds behind Sofuoglu, with Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Intermoto Step Racing) only 0.080 seconds off the pole. Broc Parkes (Ten Kate Racing Products Honda) finished his day fourth and 0.162 seconds down on Sofuoglu. The first rider off the second row for tomorrow’s race will be championship challenger Sam Lowes (Bogdanka PTR Honda) in fifth, with the Power Team by Suriano Triumph of Vittorio Iannuzzo in sixth place. Times: 1. Sofuoglu (Kawasaki) 2’03.217 average 157.858 kph; 2. Cluzel (Honda) 2’03.219; 3. Foret (Kawasaki) 2’03.297; 4. Parkes (Honda) 2’03.379; 5. Lowes (Honda) 2’03.481; 6. Iannuzzo (Triumph) 2’04.005; 7. Quarmby (Honda) 2’04.014; 8. Baldolini (Triumph) 2’04.043; etc. Superstock 1000 Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) took his fourth pole of the 2012 season in holding off a trio of Kawasaki riders at Brno. Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Kawasaki), Christoffer Bergman (BWG Racing Kawasaki) and Bryan Staring (Team Pedercini Kawasaki) completed the front row in readiness for Sunday’s race. Lorenzo Baroni (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet) was fifth, ahead of local man Ondrej Jezek (SBK Energy Racing Team Ducati). Title challenger Eddi La Marra (Barni Racing Team Italia) was the top 1199 Panigale rider, but in seventh. Times: 1. Barrier (BMW) 2’03.343 average 157.697 kph; 2. Guarnoni (Kawasaki) 2’03.744; 3. Bergman (Kawasaki) 2’03.945; 4. Staring (Kawasaki) 2’04.069; 5. Baroni (BMW) 2’04.100; 6. Jezek (Ducati) 2’04.291; 7. La Marra (Ducati) 2’04.392; 8. Savadori (Ducati) 2’04.688; etc. Superstock 600 Race Michael van der Mark (EAB Ten Kate Junior Honda) scored his third win of the season after a thrilling 11-lap Superstock 600 race at Brno, having overcome the close attention of three other riders. Gauthier Duwelz (MTM Yamaha) finished only 0.125 seconds from van der Mark after battling hard with him for the final few laps. Riccardo Russo (Yamaha Team Italia FMI) went third and another fast qualifier, Alex Schacht (Schacht Racing SBK ONE Honda) worked his way up to finish right behind and just off the podium. In winning the race van Der Mark moved to the top of the championship, by only two points from Russo, 124 to 122. Each of these riders has three wins apiece in 2012. Duwelz is third on 78 points. Results: 1. Vd Mark (Honda) 11 Laps/59.433 km in 23’25.755 average 152.202 kph; 2. Duwelz (Yamaha) 0.125; 3. Russo (Yamaha) 0.687; 4. Schacht (Honda) 0.900; 5. Cocco (Yamaha) 9.062; 6. Morbidelli (Yamaha) 9.157; 7. Nestorovic (Yamaha) 9.473; 8. Gamarino (Kawasaki) 10.488; etc. Points (after 6 of 10 rounds): 1. Vd Mark 124; 2. Russo 122; 3. Duwelz 78; 4. Calero Perez 50; 5. Vitali 46; 6. Gamarino 41; 7. Nestorovic 37; 8. Cocco 35; etc. KTM European Junior Cup Javier Orellana and Jamie Patterson were the top two in the European Junior Cup qualifying session at Brno, with Orellana just over half a second faster than his rival from Northern Ireland to take the pole position slot. The Spanish youngster, who turns 15 next Friday, is also not entirely fit due to a recent injury. Lukas Wimmer went third, Gaston Garcia fourth, with Tom Busch fifth on the grid. Times: 1. Orellana (KTM) 2’17.680 average 141.275 kph; 2. Patterson (KTM) 2’18.203; 3. Wimmer (KTM) 2’18.490; 4. Garcia (KTM) 2’18.681; 5. Busch (KTM) 2’19.055; 6. Wielebski (KTM) 2’19.999; 7. Fazzina (KTM) 2’20.005; 8. Pasek (KTM) 2’20.070; etc. More, from a press release issued by Honda: Rea satisfied with sixth at Brno Jonathan Rea has declared himself satisfied after securing a second-row starting position for tomorrow’s two ninth-round World Superbike championship races at the Automotodromo Brno in the Czech Republic. The 25-year-old went into this afternoon’s Superpole sessions needing to improve on his regular qualifying positions of 15th yesterday and 12th this morning. Adjustments made to his Honda CBR1000RR, however, allowed him to progress to Superpole 2 in which he had set the second-fastest time before the session was red-flagged. After a lengthy delay to clean oil from the 5.403km Brno circuit, drops of rain began to fall and Superpole was then declared ‘wet’, with one 20-minute session given to the remaining riders. However, although the track never became wet, Rea had already used his two allotted qualifying tyres. Pole position was taken by Britain’s Tom Sykes, with Rea setting the sixth fastest time on a race tyre. His Honda World Superbike team-mate, Hiroshi Aoyama, was unable to qualify for Superpole and will start tomorrow’s races from the fifth row of the grid. Jonathan Rea P6, 1m59.560s I’m quite satisfied with sixth today, especially after yesterday. In the final Superpole session, we only had a race tyre left to go out on. I was a little bit worried because there were quite a few qualifiers still kicking around, but we managed to put a good lap together. While I’m happy with where I qualified, I’m still not completely happy with the bike. We still need to make a few adjustments overnight to try in warm-up tomorrow morning. But at least we’re on the front two rows and our race pace is OK. We still need to improve our out-and-out lap speed for the first five or ten laps of the race, but we’re working on that. Hiroshi Aoyama P18, 2m00.693s We improved from yesterday to today, which is quite positive, and then we improved from this morning, using a new swingarm in the free practice. It gives a little bit more drive grip, which is good, but because we only just tried it, we still need to make some adjustments for tomorrow. Yesterday I was struggling with the front feeling and although it’s still the same today, the rear has become better and, with that, the lap time improved. We’ll try another setting in the warm-up when I hope to improve the front feeling so I can push harder in the races. Pieter Breddels team co-ordinator Hiroshi unfortunately did not make Superpole, but we improved a little bit this afternoon and his ideal time would have put him in Superpole. Now we need to string a few good laps together for consistency and improvement. I hope he’ll have a positive race anyway, and learn something for the next time. After yesterday, Jonathan had to come from quite far back but he and the team did a really good job, working step-by-step and improving the setting. He’s sixth on the grid for tomorrow and I think like he found some pace for Superpole just by doing some more laps, he can find a bit more tomorrow and then anything can happen from there. More, from a press release issued by Aprilia: ELIMINATION OF MAX BIAGGI IN SUPERPOLE 1 WILL FORCE HIM TO START FROM THE FOURTH ROW IN THE RACES TOMORROW. EUGENE LAVERTY CONFIRMED HIS PERFORMANCE DURING THE TESTING SESSIONS WITH A THIRD PLACE TIME WHICH PLACES HIM ON THE FRONT ROW. Brno, 21 July 2012 The Brno Superpole played a nasty trick on Max Biaggi and the Aprilia Racing Team. The Corsair will have to start from the fourth row tomorrow after being eliminated during the first session. The rivals, unlike Biaggi’s team, decided to go with a qualifying tyre straight away, putting times on the board which relegated Max to fourteenth place. This is a situation which certainly does not leave the championship leader satisfied, who will be forced to make up the ground lost in Superpole during the races tomorrow. A lack of feeling on this track which has traditionally been favourable also contributes to expectations of an uphill battle in the races for Max Biaggi. “The mistake today cost us quite a bit. We could definitely have started closer to the front if we had used a qualifying tyre straight away like the others. In any case we’ve struggled the whole weekend and that is very odd since we’ve always been fast here. Tomorrow will be hard. Starting from the fourth row on a track that rides like this one is definitely not the best place to be”. Eugene Laverty put in a good performance, finishing Superpole in third place. After coming through the first phase Eugene was one of the few to put a time on the boards before an interruption in Superpole 2 due to engine trouble with Giuliano’s bike which left fluids on the track. When everything was ready to restart a wet Superpole, consisting of a single 20 minute session, was called due to the uncertain weather conditions. Eugene managed to use his second soft tyre well, earning him a spot on the front row of the starting grid for tomorrow. “This has been a good weekend for us so far confirmed Eugene Laverty we’ve been fast from the first sessions, continuing the positive trend we started in Aragon. Tomorrow we can do well, although, like everyone else, we still have some doubts about tyre choices because of the poor grip on the track. Hopefully the temperature will go up a bit, but in any case we’re ready to give one hundred percent”. More, from a press release issued by Effenbert Liberty Racing Team: For the Superpole that took place today at Brno, Liberty Racing Team was on track with the Czech Kuba Smrž to play the three heats to challenge the best place on the grid, instead, after the Q2 of the morning, Maxime Berger, with the 20th lap time, was out from the Superpole. The Czech, after having passed the first selection of Superpole, in the second session has been involved in the mechanical broken of the Giugliano’s Ducati. The Althea Racing rider, in fact, loosing oil on the track has unintentionally caused the crashes of Badovini, Salom and Smrz too, so the race direction gave the red flag stopping the Superpole. During the time that the marshals need to clean up the circuit, in the Liberty Racing box, all the crew made a great work to repair Kuba bike, afterwards the rain has contributed to mess up the program, delaying the restart again. At the end Kuba Smrž closed 10th , with a time of 1’59 “871 and will start from the third row. The pole was snapped again from the Kawasaki rider Tom Sykes. More, from a press release issued by BMW Motorrad Motorsport: Brno Qualifying Practice 2 & Superpole. Saturday, 21st July 2012. Weather conditions: Cloudy with some sun in the morning and drops of rain in the afternoon. Temperature: Air: 20 22 °C, Track: 26 27 °C Number of riders participating: 23 from 14 teams Fastest lap Qualifying Practices: Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) 1:59.443 min Fastest lap Superpole 2: Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) 1:58.010 min After a turbulent Superpole qualifying, the two Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport factory riders will start tomorrow’s races at Brno from the second row. The Czech track hosts the ninth round of the 2012 FIM Superbike World Championship. A delay of nearly one and a half hours and unstable weather conditions made this afternoon a challenge for riders and teams. Marco Melandri (ITA) qualified fifth, while his team-mate Leon Haslam (GBR) occupies seventh on the grid with his BMW S 1000 RR. Marco, who almost missed the second qualifying practice in the morning due to a crash, only needed one flying lap on race tyres to set the best time in Superpole 1. He then returned to the garage and prepared for Superpole 2. Leon also started on race tyres and then switched to the qualifying tyre, setting a time that promoted him to the next session. Superpole 2 had to be red flagged after only a few minutes, as a bike had dropped oil on the track causing several riders to crash. It took one hour to clean the track and just when Superpole 2 was about to resume, light rain started. This caused another delay and Superpole 2 was declared “wet”, meaning there was only one session of 20 minutes in which the 12 riders fought for the final starting positions on the grid. In difficult conditions with a still partly dirty track and drops of rain it was a kind of lottery, with Marco finishing fifth and Leon being seventh. Michel Fabrizio (ITA) of the BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet SBK Team will start from eighth place on his RR. His team-mate Ayrton Badovini (ITA) was one of the riders who crashed because of the oil. He could not take part in the deciding session and starts from 12th. Marco Melandri: Fastest lap Qualifying Practices: 1:59.545 min (P3) / Fastest lap FP: 1:59.743 min (P4) / Fastest lap Superpole 2: 1:58.885 min (P5) “Starting from fifth position here in Brno is not too bad. First of all, I start on the outside of the track which hopefully allows me to carry more speed into the first corner. On top of that, the way to the first corner is quite long, and last but not least, there are opportunities for passing on this circuit. Again, I did my fastest lap times on the race tyre and could not exempt the potential of the qualifiying tyres. Compared to yesterday, we improved the chattering on the race tyre, but I still struggle a little bit. I don’t think I could be much faster but have a lot better race rhythm. Overall, I am confident for tomorrow.” Leon Haslam: Fastest lap Qualifying Practices: 2:00.422 min (P15) / Fastest lap FP: 2:00.486 min (P10) / Fastest lap Superpole 2: 1:59.583 min (P7) “I am quite happy. This is one of the circuits where I have always had issues and slowly but surely we are getting a set-up for the bike and I am changing my riding style to try and get to where we need to be, which is at the front. We made a big improvement for Superpole and hopefully we can make some more improvements for tomorrow. The conditions in the afternoon were quite tricky, with the rain coming down and oil on two corners so everyone was a little cautious. Some took more risks than others. The races will be hard, but we will keep pushing and if we can keep improving as we have done today then I want to fight for the podium.” Andrea Dosoli (Head of Race Operations): “It was a very thrilling Superpole. It is always important to be in the front two rows and we are pleased that we managed this by being in the second row with both riders. We are happy with the progress made by Leon on a race track where he has been struggling in the past. He has improved his pace and his performance. Still something is missing but we hope that during the warm-up tomorrow we can further improve some areas of the bike in order to be a few tenths faster on the pace. Marco has been fast all weekend and even though he had lost the qualifying session this morning, he and his crew were able to work well on the bike’s set-up. Also his performance has improved compared to yesterday as we have seen with the lap time done in Superpole on the race tyre and his pace is one of the best. It is a pity he cannot start from the front row but we are confident that, as usual, he will perform well during the start and he will be fighting for a race win.” More, from a press release issued by Althea Racing: TEAM ALTHEA RACING SCORES FRONT ROW STARTS FOR TOMORROW’S RACES AT BRNO; CHECA SECOND, GIUGLIANO FOURTH Brno (Czech Republic), Saturday 21st July 2012: an emotional and tricky Superpole for Althea men Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano today at the Brno circuit. Davide suffered a crash during the all-important session, caused when a stone punctured his bike’s radiator. Despite this set back, the young Italian qualified fourth for tomorrow’s races. Current world champion Carlos lapped three tenths faster than his team-mate to qualify in second place, behind polesitter Sykes. Dry conditions this morning for the second qualifying session. Carlos and Davide, on board their 1198 bikes, dominated almost the entire session. The two Althea Riders recorded the second (Carlos) and third (Davide) fastest times of the session. Taking advantage of the wider tyre solution that he did not have chance to test yesterday, the Spanish rider was able to improve on his best time set yesterday by four tenths of a second, recording a fastest lap of 1’59.7. The young Italian rider on the other hand, having finished first yesterday, was unable to improve on that time but once the times of the two qualifying sessions were combined, Giugliano nevertheless qualified for this afternoon’s Superpole in second position, with Checa closing in fifth place. The Althea pairing made the most of the early afternoon’s final practice session, making some final changes to the set-up in preparation for the all-important Superpole. At the end of the practice, Davide was in first position with a best time of 1m59.5, while Carlos finished second with a fastest lap of 1m59.6. Superpole 1: both Carlos and Davide made a first exit with a race tyre, immediately recording what would be the second (Carlos) and eighth (Davide) final fastest times of the session. Thanks to these results, there was no need for the Althea men to continue on track, and both returned to the garage, having already done enough to qualify for phase 2. Superpole 2: This time both riders decided to go out with a qualifying tyre. Unfortunately as Davide lapped, a stone hit the radiator, causing his bike to lose oil. The oil on track led to the session being red-flagged. Giugliano then crashed, injuring his left forearm. In the space of fifteen minutes Davide’s technicians, with the help of the technicians on Carlos’ side, were able to do an impressive job of fixing his 1198, allowing him to participate in what remained of the Superpole. The session was subsequently restarted though was declared ‘wet’ after a light shower just minutes before the start (the track was in reality only damp in certain sections). Back on track after a stop of almost one hour, Carlos recorded a very fast time of 1’58.7 almost immediately. A few minutes later he went one better and shaved another three tenths of that time, to close today’s Superpole with the second fastest time overall (1’58.4). Giugliano used his first exit to build his confidence back up, before registering a clean, fast lap during a second exit which was good enough to ensure him of a front row start. He will therefore line up in fourth place for tomorrow’s race, alongside his team-mate Carlos. Carlos Checa: “We’ve been working well all weekend. We identified a good set-up at Aragon and, having continued the work here, I’d say we’re at a good point now. What happened to Davide was a real shame but in the end we were both able to take strong results, despite the threat of rain in that last Superpole session. I think this is already a significant result for the team, as our performances prove that we can be competitive at this track. Tomorrow we’ll be fighting hard I’m feeling confident that we can do well.” Davide Giugliano: “First of all I want to say that I’m really sorry for what happened and for the fact that it affected other riders’ Superpole performance. I heard something hit my bike but I didn’t immediately notice that I was losing oil. I hurt my left forearm in the crash but it’s nothing serious I don’t think. It was great to see Carlos’ technicians come and help my guys to get the bike fixed in time I therefore want to thank the entire team for giving me the chance to go back out in the last session. It was a hard and emotional day but we can be satisfied with the final result I think. This is the first time I’ve been able to interpret this track so well. Now I will rest up to be in the best possible condition for tomorrow’s races.” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service: FIXI Crescent Suzuki racers Leon Camier and John Hopkins will start the ninth round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship from Brno in the Czech Republic tomorrow on the fourth row of the grid. Camier comfortably qualified for this afternoon’s Superpole session following this morning’s final qualifying and a high-placed grid position looked in his grasp with just minutes of Superpole one remaining. He was in fifth place, but was bumped down the leader-board as other riders posted quicker times in the final part of the session, leaving the Englishman on the edge of the top-12 that went through to the second session. His time of 1’59.789 was good enough for 13th overall and he will start tomorrow’s races from the head of the fourth row. Hopkins made sure of his participation in this afternoon’s Superpole on his Yoshimura-powered Suzuki GSX-R and was in a confident mood of producing his best grid position of the year so far. He recorded his fastest lap of the weekend during the first Superpole session, with a time of 1’59.973, but it just wasn’t enough to carry him through to final shoot-out and he will start Sunday’s races from 16th on the grid. Following the elimination of the FIXI Crescent Suzuki racers, the Superpole session was delayed by an oil spill and the time taken to make the track safe. When it finally resumed, it was declared wet as the rain had started to fall, so the remaining 12-riders only had a single 20-minute session. Tom Sykes on a Kawasaki took pole – for the seventh time this season. He will be joined on the front-row by Carlos Checa, Eugene Laverty and Davide Giugliano. Current championship leader Max Biaggi will start from 14th on the grid. Camier, Hopkins and the rest of the World Superbike field will line up for the first of tomorrow’s races at the 5,403m Czech circuit at 12.00 local time (11.00hrs BST), with race two scheduled for 15.00hrs local time (14.00hrs BST), when both the FIXI Crescent Suzuki riders will be looking for good starts to get in amongst the action early on. Leon Camier: “Our FIXI Crescent Suzuki has definitely improved a bit since the last round in Aragon and I’m pretty happy with it and the set-up on race tyres. In Superpole 1 we started out on a race tyre and I found myself in a bit of a freight train at first, but the good news is that I was staying with the fast guys fairly easily and that felt pretty good. When we put in the qualifying tyre to go faster, I felt it chatter almost right from the start of the lap. I pushed as hard as I could, but the chatter got worse and I nearly lost the front a couple of times. If I hadn’t had the chatter, I’m sure I would’ve qualified for Superpole 2, and then who knows how far I could’ve gone.” John Hopkins: “Basically we spent most of the day working on finding a good set-up and trying to improve the chatter. We also tried some different tyres and, at the end of normal qualifying, the bike had the least amount of chatter it’s had all season. I started Superpole 1 on race tyres and made a couple of little mistakes and I don’t think I maximised the potential of the tyres. We put in a qualifier late on in Superpole 1 and, because we’ve been struggling all year with them, I was bit sceptical about how they would perform, so I was a bit cautious at first. I then started to go quicker, but misjudged the amount of time left and the chequered flag came down before I could put in a faster lap.” Jack Valentine – Team Manager: “I genuinely thought we could’ve progressed further in Superpole with Leon and, in the end, he missed it by the narrowest of margins. His pace in Superpole 1 was good but he didn’t get the best out of his qualifying tyre and was bumped down in the last minute. I felt sure he’d do it today and it’s disappointing he didn’t manage it. John went out on his qualifying tyre, but didn’t go for it on his first lap and ran out of time before he could put in a quicker one before the flag came out. On a positive note, both riders are happy with the bike’s chassis, their race set-ups and the feel of the engine. I think the bike is probably the best it has been all year, so I’m gutted that we didn’t get into Superpole 2. I hope both riders can get good starts and if they can get on the back of the lead pack then good results are possible.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Sykes To The Power Of Seven At Brno WSBK, Brno, Czech Republic, 21 July 2012 Kawasaki Racing Team rider Tom Sykes used his Ninja ZX-10R to full effect in qualifying once more to take his seventh Tissot-Superpole win of the year. His team-mate Loris Baz was 15th in Superpole. Sykes set a new track best of 1’58.010 seconds at Brno on the second Superpole session, declared wet after a small smattering of rain, but eventually held in dry conditions. Superpole 2 was interrupted by an oil spill on the track, which claimed several riders as they fell on the slippery track surface. After a long delay thanks to necessary track cleaning a new schedule was announced. The planned 16.25 restart was once more delayed by a fall of rain on one part of the circuit. A wet Superpole was called but the eventual second and final 20 minute ‘wet’ Superpole session took place in the dry, allowing Sykes to set his new best time. KRT rider Baz had a strong qualifying show at Brno, going tenth in the combined times and easily putting himself into Superpole. He was looking good to progress through Superpole 2 but a small mistake cost him the required lap time and he now lines up 15th, on the fourth row of the grid. Kawasaki Team Pedercini Superbike rider David Salom had a great qualifying experience compared to most and took his Ninja ZX-10R to ninth on combined qualifying, then moving through Superpole one, to start the first attempt at Superpole 2, which was finally abandoned when he and three other riders fell on the oil spill. He ended up 11th on the grid, for a third row start, as his bike was too damaged to continue in the eventual wet Superpole 2. His team-mate Leandro Mercado qualified 21st on the grid for Sunday’s 20-lap races. In the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup class Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Kawasaki) qualified second and Motorland Aragon race winner Bryan Staring (Kawasaki Team Pedercini) was fourth, both starting off the front row. Tom Sykes: “I think overall things are looking not too bad for tomorrow. I think there is no question that the Kawasaki and I have got the speed to do this sort of thing in one lap. In terms of race performance we will see how we go but I am fairly confident for the races tomorrow. We have tried three different tyres and got a lot of information this weekend. Hopefully we can convert pole position but that has been difficult this year. I am sure I will sleep well tonight and come out swinging tomorrow.” Loris Baz: “I just missed a gear in the last corner. Normally I do the first part in second and the second part in third but I missed the gear between the corners and I just couldn’t do the lap time I wanted. It was looking like I would finish well but I ended up 15th. I think we have a good race pace because we improved a lot this morning, but it would have been great to start the races from the second row.” David Salom: “I’m very satisfied with my morning qualifying and with the first phase of the Superpole. Unfortunately in the second phase I crashed because of some oil on the track and I was not able to restart because my bike was badly damaged. This morning I was able to improve my best lap time and enter Superpole. We solved some problems on the electronics of the bike and they are now working very well. We improved the bike set up and so I’m confident for tomorrow’s race. I’ll try my best to get two good results.”