FOGGY PETRONAS RACING ON A MISANO MISSION
25 June 2005 - Foggy PETRONAS Racing

Foggy PETRONAS Racing return to a happy hunting ground for this weekend''s sixth round of the Superbike World Championship at Misano, Italy.

The San Marino round provided the highlight of last season for FPR when current championship leader Troy Corser claimed the team''s best race finish with a second place in the damp first race.

Current FPR star Steve Martin also has good memories of the circuit, situated near the Adriatic coast, as he clinched pole position and a podium finish last year. He also claimed provisional pole on Pirelli tyres in 2003, the year before the introduction of the one-make tyre rule.

Team owner Carl Fogarty has realistic ambitions to build on the positive aspects of the previous round of the championship at Silverstone.

He said: ''I am hoping we will be closer to the front than at recent tracks we have been to. We finally achieved some consistency and finishes at Silverstone and, with the reliability returning, I would like to see if we can break into the top ten again. I don''t see any reason why we shouldn''t be able to do that as you come onto the back straight from a long fast corner and the only place we might struggle is coming out of the final corner.''

Team Manager Jack Valentine said: ''We have been working to find more punch coming out of the corners by getting more out of our new engine management system. I do not think we have had the full benefit of that yet. I want to finish the weekend being pleased with the reliability, to have had both riders in Superpole and for both riders to have scored good points in both races.''

Steve said: ''I feel good about this weekend. We made a change to the bike for the second race at Silverstone which reduced the chatter I had been experiencing and allowed me to get on the pace until a problem with the frame caused problems. Misano is a place where I have never had any problems finding speed. It''s also got one the fastest and ballsy corners on the calendar - coming onto the back straight. I''ve raced there four times now so I''ve got a pretty good idea of how we''re going to want to get the bike set up.''

Garry said: ''I first raced a 125cc grand prix there in 1993 and I like the track. The weather last year made it a difficult weekend and I was taken out in the first race. But, now we have beefed things up a bit, we will be looking for a little bit more torque off the bottom end of the power range because, other than the one long straight, there are quite a few turns. I was disappointed that I made a mistake at Silverstone and crashed in the first race because I thought I was on for an easy top ten result - even as high as sixth. We are still taking things step by step but I am definitely looking for top ten finishes.''

Circuit information: Misano, Italy

Best lap: Neil Hodgson, 1:46.981 (Superpole, 2003)
Lap record (race): Troy Bayliss 1:47.434.913 (2002)
Pole position: Left
Circuit length: 5.793km
Corners: 5 left, 8 right
Corner radius: 610m maximum, 12.5m minimum
Maximum slope: 2.4 per cent

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