Team Alstare Suzuki Corona
2006 Superbike World Championship,
Round 2, Phillip Island, Australia
Friday qualifying, 3rd March
Circuit: 4.445 kms. Weather: Dry, sunny 28-36C.
PROVISIONAL FRONT ROW FOR TROY.
Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Troy Corser posted
the fourth quickest time of Friday qualifying despite clutch
and grip problems. The high temperatures in the afternoon
qualifying session caused grip problems for many riders, but
series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) overcame them to set the
day’s fastest lap, with a time of 1:33.387. Second quickest
is Brazilian Alex Barros (Honda), with James Toseland (Honda)
third. Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Yukio Kagayama also
suffered with lack of grip and ended fifth fastest overall.
Fabien Foret had problems with his bike set-up and finished
twenty-third fastest.
TROY - 4th, 1:33.868
Today, and especially this afternoon, I had some problems
with grip and also the clutch. The grip problems may have
been to do with the high track temperature in the afternoon
(nearly 50 C), but I was just not entirely happy. The inconsistency
of the clutch probably caused my little get-off - at Honda
corner. The bike’s clutch didn’t seem quite right
on the approach to the turn and then the bike just tucked
under as I went in. It’s a slow corner and I wasn’t
hurt at all, but it’s a bit of a worry if the clutch
is going to continue to be inconsistent. It’s a new
clutch for this year, but it worked perfectly well in the
four day test at Phillip Island earlier in the year, so we
are a bit of a loss to understand why it is playing up now.
Either way, we will have to solve the problem soon or it will
become a nuisance.
YUKIO - 5th, 1:34.461
I also had some grip problems today and I think it was probably
because of the heat and also some parts of the track were
a bit dirty. The top section of the track was probably worse
than the rest, but it is the same situation for all riders,
so I must do better. There was quite a bit of traffic out
there in qualifying but I did my best lap when I had other
riders nearby. I used a very similar setting to when we tested
here, but the bike didn’t feel the same at all! For
tomorrow we will change the front end set-up and see if we
can improve. I tried some different sets of clutches today
and found two that worked OK, so I am keeping them for the
race on Sunday!
FABIEN - 23rd, 1:35.917
Today was not so good and I am not so happy. I did more or
less the same lap times in the afternoon as I did in the morning
and of course I should have improved quite a bit! At the moment,
I think it is the front end that is giving us problems, so
we will look at the data and see what changes should be made.
I hope that we find a good solution so that I can improve
my lap times a lot - I need to be much higher up the order.
Friday qualifying
1 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1:33.387, 2 Barros (Bra-Honda) 1:33.790,
3 Toseland (GB-Honda) 1:33.851, 4 TROY CORSER (Aus-Alstare
Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:33.868, 5 YUKIO KAGAYAMA (J-Alstare
Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:34.461, 6 Martin (Aus-Petronas) 1:34.501,
7 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1:34.577, 8 Walker (GB-Kawasaki) 1:34.589,
9 Chili (I-Honda) 1:34.601, 10 Nieto (E-Kawasaki) 1:34.618,
23 FABIEN FORET (F-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:35.917,
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