PROMISING START FOR FPR AT BRANDS HATCH
05 August 2005 - Foggy PETRONAS Racing

Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Steve Martin and Garry McCoy today made an encouraging start to this weekend’s eighth round of the Superbike World Championship at Brands Hatch.

Steve, with a best time of 1:28.318, finished the first qualifying session in 11th place but just 0.3 seconds off sixth, while Troy Corser set the fastest time of 1:27.123.

Garry, recovering from elbow and back injuries sustained in the previous round at Brno, was 20th but just a fraction of a second outside the provisional Superpole positions.

The morning session was hampered by wet weather, with riders using a combination of wet, intermediate and slick tyres. Steve and Garry finished 9th and 20th respectively in the first hour.

Garry said: “My elbow gave me a bit of grief this morning but I changed the taping for the afternoon and will probably try another cushion for tomorrow. It doesn’t feel too bad on the bike, but I can feel it a bit in the right-handers. I also had a massage on my back and shoulders between sessions which helped. Considering we were unsure about whether I could ride this weekend I was pretty happy with the day and I am confident I can make up the two tenths currently between me and Superpole. It would have been nice to have been up to speed on a better race tyre before going out on the qualifier, but we wanted to use the qualifier early in case it rained. We have some more work to do on set-up and the gearbox and, depending on the weather tomorrow, we will also probably try a couple of tyres.”

Steve said: “It was a good start to the weekend and it’s always a good sign when I can do consistent times. It was also a good day for testing the bike in different conditions - dry, intermediate and wet. The dry afternoon session went pretty well and I was able to do some reasonable times on race tyres. We didn’t change the base setting too much but I had a slight problem with the running of the bike and if we can solve that overnight then we will able to improve further. I made a mistake on my first lap on the qualifier so I feel I can get into the 1:27s tomorrow.”

Friday qualifying times, Superbike World Championship round 8, Brands, Great Britain: 1 Corser 1:27.123; 2 Laconi 1:27.652; 3 Walker 1:27.656; 4 Muggeridge 1:27.742; 5 Kagayama 1:27.767; 6 Pitt 1:28.023; 7 Vermeulen 1:28.056; 8 Toseland 1:28.072; 9 Chili 1:28.205; 10 Neukirchner 1:28.271; 11 Martin 1:28.318; 20 McCoy 1:29.198

Friday morning free practice times: 1 Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:29.923; 2 Bostrom (Renegade Koji) 1:30.776; 3 Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:31.406; 4 Alfonsi (D.F.X. Treme) 1:31.683; 5 Haga (Yamaha Italia) 1:31.788; 6 Walker (PSG-1 Kawasaki) 1:32.015; 7 Pitt (Yamaha Italia) 1:32.111; 8 Vermeulen (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 1:32.188; 9 MARTIN (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:32.285; 10 Borciani (DFXtreme Sterilgarda) 1:32.419; 20 McCOY (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:34.699

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