NEUKIRCHNER 2ND ON UTAH WSB GRID
Team Alstare Suzuki rider Max Neukirchner saw his dream of
Superpole victory at the Miller Motorsports Park in Utah,
USA for the sixth round of the World Superbike Championship
dashed by Carlos Checa (Honda) in 16-rider shoot-out.
Although he had put in a lap of 1:48.504 - substantially
quicker then anybody in regular qualifying - Checa managed
to blast round the 4.907 kilometre circuit in a time of 1:48.193.
Team Suzuki Alstare riders Yukio Kagayama and Fonsi Nieto
ended Superpole with the eighth and 13th quickest times and
start from the second and fourth rows of the grid respectively.
Max Neukirchner - 2nd, 1:48.504:
Throughout qualifying we've been having some problems with
the race tyres but my team worked very hard and we found a
good race set-up, and that makes me happy. I had problems
with the first sector, so this morning I watched Ben Spies
on the track and saw the lines he was using. I tried some
of them later and found them much better. My Superpole lap
was great - the bike was working really well and now I'm happily
looking forward to the races tomorrow.
Yukio Kagayama - 8th, 1:49.394:
In the first sector, my bike had a nervous feeling and it
was difficult to push as hard as I would normally. So I rode
it a bit safely because I didn't want to crash, but that meant
I lost some time and ended eighth. Today the final sector
of the track was better than yesterday, but there are some
places where my bike has a bit of a bumping feeling, so we
will see if we can improve it in the warm-up tomorrow. I'm
not happy with Superpole today, but the races are long and
anything can happen tomorrow.
Fonsi Nieto - 13th, 1:49.942:
Superpole has not been good for me and this afternoon, when
it was hot, I could not go fast or turn the bike easily. Also,
I didn't find good grip and so I am not happy with finishing
13th. This morning was quite good and I was able to be fast.
We will have a lot of work to do tonight and a lot of data
to analyse to see if we can make some improvements for tomorrow.
Final qualifying: 1 Checa (E-Honda) 1:48.193, 2 Max Neukirchner
(D-Alstare Suzuki) 1:48.504, 3 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1:48.604,
4 Fabrizio (I-Ducati) 1:48.800, 5 Corser (Aus-Yamaha) 1:48.975,
6 Xaus (E-Ducati) 1:49.181, 7 Laconi (F-Kawasaki) 1:49.206,
8 Yukio Kagayama (J-Suzuki Alstare) 1:49.394, 9 Biaggi (I-Ducati)
1:49.479, 10 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1:49.735. 13 Fonsi Nieto (E-Suzuki
Alstare) 1:49.942.
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