Kawasaki WSB WSS - Magny Corse

[MadKaw]

Lascorz Just Misses Pole as Kawasaki Riders Step-Up
WSS, Magny Cours, France, 3 October 2009
Both Joan Lascorz and Katsuaki Fujiwara had positive practice and qualifying experiences at Magny-Cours, with Lascorz only just missing what would have been his second pole of the 2009 season.
Lascorz Just Misses Pole as Kawasaki Riders Step-Up
Lascorz will start Sunday’s 22-lap Supersport race second on the grid, and after some consistently good work in the pitbox and out on track, he has a machine set-up which should allow him to be fully competitive on raceday.

Fujiwara was in the mix with the top ten riders all weekend, making constant improvements and finding a good path to a competitive full race set-up of his own.

The times at the top of the Magny-Cours qualifying lists were closer than in some races this year, with Lascorz only 0.166 from championship leader Cal Crutchlow, and Fujiwara, seventh overall, was less than a second from the front. Twenty-nine riders qualified for the race at Magny-Cours, in what were good track conditions.

Joan Lascorz: “We were very close to taking pole. When I put on my last new tyre I did two 1’41.1 laps, and my confidence was good; it was easy to do it. But then Cal went faster, and I had no new tyre to use to try and go faster again. But a front row spot is good and our race pace is very good. We made improvements step-by-step and our lap times are fast and consistent. We should have a good fight at the front tomorrow.”

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Parkes Goes Into Superpole At Magny-Cours
WSBK, Magny Cours, France, 3 October 2009
Broc Parkes joined the top 20 riders in the Superpole contest at Magny-Cours, and finished 19th overall. He now starts Sunday’s pair of 23-lap races from the fifth row.
Parkes Goes Into Superpole At Magny-Cours
His team-mate for the weekend, Sheridan Morais, was unable to find a set-up which would allow him to ride at the same pace he showed at Kyalami earlier this year, but he will try more solutions in morning warm-up to let him fight for points scoring finishes in the races. Sheridan was 23rd fastest of the 26 WSB riders in France.

Magny-Cours has enjoyed some almost balmy weather conditions for this time of year and both Broc and Sheridan are hoping for a repeat of these conditions on Sunday, to use the race set-up data collected to its best effect.

Superpole started 10 minutes later than scheduled, after a rival competitor’s engine spread oil on the track in free practice, which took some time to be cleaned. This interruption also meant that the final untimed qualifying session itself was reduced to 30 minutes duration, robbing all present of some vital set-up time.

Broc Parkes: “We had a bit of an issue when we put the qualifier in, as the bike was harder to turn. That meant we did a time about the same as we did on the regular race tyres. The good news is that on race tyres things are much better and we can get to a good consistent pace. So we need to get a quick start in the races and then we should be able to run much nearer the front than we qualified.”

Sheridan Morais: “Broc and I are sort of in the same position, and we have tried a few things to try and get the bike turning the way we want it to in the faster sections. Stability under braking is good. We are getting good movement from the suspension and so on as well. We are having a bit of a debrief to see what we can improve for tomorrow.”

Katsuaki Fujiwara: “Our lap times have been good in qualifying and they got better and better as the sessions went on. We could have been third or fourth with just a relatively small improvement in times. Our set-up has just got better and better. Our race pace should be strong, and when we find the right balance on the bike it is very, very good.”

[hoffy]

Hor-Gay takes Pole, thankyou Hor-Gay !