UPHILL BATTLE FOR FPR IN MONZA
07 May 2005 - Foggy PETRONAS Racing

Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Garry McCoy and Steve Martin face an uphill battle in tomorrow''s fourth round races in the Superbike World Championship after a day to forget at Monza.

Both riders, hindered by a succession of technical problems, failed to qualify for Superpole and will start from the sixth row of the grid in 23rd and 24th positions. Yukio Kagayama claimed his second pole position of the season.

Garry was unable to complete a single timed lap in the morning qualifying session because of mechanical troubles which impacted on his afternoon track time. Steve worked hard to combat morning handling problems and was able to post his fastest times on race tyres.

Garry said: ''I have not suffered many days like today before! My fastest time yesterday was the second lap on the same qualifier, which is not how it is meant to be. So I was hoping to improve my position today and definitely expecting to be in Superpole. I have only been here once and found that you race with the guys who are with you on the grid. But, given a couple of half-reasonable starts and trouble-free races, I should be able to catch with a few but it is going to be an uphill battle. At least I managed to slip in a couple of different tyres this afternoon and get an initial feel for them, although I wasn''t able to do a lot of laps.''

Steve said: ''The afternoon session was my best of the weekend and I was reasonably happy to be doing consistent low 51s and high 50s. I only used one new tyre all session so I managed to do some chassis set-up work and start to feel consistent. The main problem in the morning was maintaining stability in a straight line. So we went a different way with the front end to stop it bottoming out and that more or less cured it. We also ran a different shock in the rear, which I can now work with. I was devastated not to be in Superpole and we should have been there. We need to get into the points tomorrow. It is going to be tough but I am hoping a good race set-up will get us far enough through the field.''

Superpole results, Superbike World Championship round 4, Monza, Italy: 1 Kagayama 1:47.439; 2 Corser +0.007; 3 Laconi +0.446; 4 Muggeridge +0.615; 5 Vermeulen +0.689; 6 Pitt +1.141; 7 Walker +1.174; 8 Toseland +1.256; 9 Chili +1.469; 10 Bussei +1.806; 11 Haga +1.840; 12 Nannelli +1.933; 13 Cardoso +1.962; 14 Abe +2.472; 15 Sanchini 2.599; 16 Gimbert +2.914

Saturday qualifying times (best time bracketed): 1 Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1:47.143; 2 Vermeulen (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1:47.526; 3 Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki Corona) 1:47.726; 4 Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona) 1:47.788; 5 Laconi (Ducati Xerox) 1:47.918; 6 Pitt (Yamaha Italia) 1;48.065; 7 Toseland (Ducati Xerox) 1:48.696; 8 Nannelli (Ducati SC Caracchi) 1:49.955 (1:48.809); 9 Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki) 1:48.967; 10 Chili (Klaffi Honda) 1:49.044; 23 McCoy (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) (1:50.635); 24 Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:50.666

Free practice times: 1 Kagayama 1:47.565; 2 Corser 1:47.596; 3 Muggeridge 1:47.878; 4 Laconi 1:48.060; 5 Pitt 1:48.443; 6 Toseland 1:48.573; 7 Vermeulen 1:48.824; 8 Walker 1:48.899; 9 Nannelli 1:49.114; 10 Chili 1:49.211; 22 Martin 1:50.836; 23 McCoy 1:51.008

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