SUPERSIDE: Hungaroring: First qualifying report

In the heat of the midday sunshine, the Superside teams completed their first of two qualifying sessions on Saturday.

Tim & Tristan Reeves (Team Roberts Racing LCR-Suzuki) continued to hold the top spot following on from their free practice session on Friday evening, setting the fastest time early in the session on 1:56:7s. With Team Castrol Suzuki's Steve Webster & Paul Woodhead using the session to run in their second new engine it looked as though Reeves' main challenge would come from Jörg Steinhausen and Trevor Hopkinson on the Steinhausen Racing machine. The German driver got to within 8/100's of a second of Reeves before Webster decided that his Suzuki was sufficiently bedded-in to allow a couple of quick laps near the end of the session. The Englishman immediately jumped to 3rd position, before destroying the opposition with a stunning time of 1:54:57s, just 3/10ths short of his 2004 lap record time set in slightly cooler conditions. Reeves who was in pit-lane managed to respond in the final moments of the 50minute session with a superb 1:54:87s.

Mike Roscher & Adolf Hänni ended the qualifying in 4th position ahead of Martien & Tonnie van Gils, with Dan Morrissey and Rob Biggs in 6th. Morrissey was unhappy with his performance "The engine is perfect, the chassis is perfect, but unfortunately I'm suffering with Hay-Fever and it's making things very difficult for me. It's not easy having a running nose and watering eyes inside the crash-helmet" explained the Team Advan Excalibur rider.

Pekka Piävarinta & Peter Wall had a small spin at the chicaine and could only manage the 11th quickest time, while fellow Finns Tero Maninnen & Pekka Kuismanen were suffering with a mystery mis-fire on their Suzuki engine, pulling off the circuit after just three laps.

Father and Son, Gary & Dan Knight also suffered from machine failure on their brand new LCR-Suzuki and find themselves in 14th position before the afternoon's second qualifying.

-superside-