World Superbike

Oschersleben: Ten Kate Honda qualifying report

Muggeridge Takes Fourth Pole in Five Attempts In the final qualifying session of the Oschersleben race weekend Karl Muggeridge (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) took full advantage of the improvements his crew made to his machine set-up overnight, ...

Published: May 30, 2004, 6:24 PM

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Muggeridge Takes Fourth Pole in Five Attempts

In the final qualifying session of the Oschersleben race weekend Karl Muggeridge (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) took full advantage of the improvements his crew made to his machine set-up overnight, scooping his fourth pole of the year on the way to the fastest ever Supersport lap of the 3.667km German track, a1:29.288.

His team-mate Broc Parkes (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) experienced unexpected technical glitches on the final day of qualifying, a factor is his qualification in sixth place, earning a start on the second row. He nonetheless improved his first day lap time with his final session 1:30.340.

The Oschersleben front row consists of Muggeridge, Sebastien Charpentier (Honda), Kevin Curtain (Yamaha) and Fabien Foret (Yamaha).

Said a self-effacing Muggeridge after his fourth pole of the year; "I suppose four out of five isn't bad for an old guy like me! We did a lot of work on the rear shock, did all we could with it only to discover it was more to do with the front fork. We worked on that and it is better. It's hard to get it perfect because there are some areas of really hard braking and then some long, tight corners. With a Supersport bike it's always a compromise. But we can lap reasonably fast with the race tyres we tested, so we'll see what happens."

Parkes acknowledged that things did not go his way on this particular day. "We had a problem on my preferred bike and that meant we had to change to the other bike. That was enough to stop me doing the times I could have done on my number one machine."

Team Manager Ronald Ten Kate explained the first day's experiences. "We are very happy with pole position, even more happy with the consistent fast times Karl was doing today, so I think we have things pretty well organised for the race tomorrow. We have some small details to test to make life easier for him in the race. Broc had some small problems today, with a misfiring bike - a big surprise to us and we will look into that later. It looked like he would get onto the front row until near the end of his last lap, but we know he is much more a racer than a qualifier. It will be tough for everyone tomorrow anyway."

World Supersport Championship Round Five - Oschersleben, Germany 28 - 30 May 2004 Final Qualifying 1. K. Muggeridge, AUS, Ten Kate Honda CBR6 00RR, 1'29.288 2. S. Charpentier, FRA, Honda CBR600RR, 1'29.644 3. K. Curtain, AUS, Yamaha YZF R6, 1'30.014 4. F. Foret, FRA, Yamaha YZF R6, 1'30.088 5. R. Stamm, SUI, Suzuki GSX 600R, 1'30.106 6. B. Parkes, AUS, Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR, 1'30.340 7. C. Kellner, GER, Yamaha YZF R6, 1'30.568 8. M. Neukirchner, GER, Honda CBR600RR, 1'30.594 9. I. Macpherson, GBR, Honda CBR600RR, 1'30.626 10. K. Fujiwara, JPN, Suzuki GSX 600R, 1'30.666

Vermeulen Starts From Second Row At Oschersleben

Having found the job of obtaining an optimum set-up for the slow and twisty Oschersleben circuit a difficult one, Chris Vermeulen (Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) ended his Superpole qualifying run in fifth place, having been third quickest in regulation qualifying.

The 3.667km German track has provided a series of obstacles to the new-for-2004 Honda, but with the morning warm-up left to run on Sunday there are still opportunities to make final modifications. Vermeulen will start the race from the first place on the second row of the grid, after Troy Corser shocked the paddock by giving the Petronas team its first ever pole position in World Superbike.

Vermeulen, still positive about his chances, on a circuit he won the Supersport race at last year, said, "I made a couple of small mistakes in Superpole, really because I didn't use a soft tyre in the last session. When we put that in it made the bike a bit 'pushy' running a bit wide here and there. So it wasn't a clean lap at all. I really wanted to be on the front row, but on the other hand we have some room for improvement tomorrow."

Team Manager Ronald Ten Kate outlined the qualifying efforts of the team. "It's been a difficult weekend so far but we have made steady progress. We have one more night to think and find solutions for Chris. Third in normal qualifying and fifth on the grid is quite good considering all the work we had to do since Friday and I hope that we can find him a bit more for tomorrow. I hope he will hang in there with the first bunch of riders off the line."

<pre> World Superbike Championship Round Five - Oschersleben, Germany 28 - 30 May 2004

Superpole Qualifying 1. T. Corser AUS Petrons FP1 1'27.687 2. N. Haga JPN Ducati 999 RS 1'28197 3. R. Laconi FRA Ducati 999 F04 1'28.339 4. P. Chili ITA Ducati 998 RS 1'28.376 5. C. Vermeulen Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR 1'28.592 6. S. Martin AUS Ducati 999 RS 1'28. 678 7. C. Walker GBR Petronas FP1 1'28.758 8. J. Toseland GBR Ducati 999 F04 1'28.795 9. M. Schulten GER Honda CBR1000RR 1'28.923 10. G. Mccoy AUS Ducati 999 RS 1'29.158

- www.tenkateracing.com

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