11TH CONSECUTIVE FRONT ROW FOR RUTTER
29 August 2004 - Honda Racing

Michael Rutter completed qualifying for the 11th round of the Think British Superbike Championship by taking his 11th consecutive front row start at Cadwell Park.

The HM Plant Honda Racing rider improved his time in the second period of qualifying to 1:28.553 – 0.422 seconds behind Scott Smart’s pole position time.

However, the main focus of attention in tomorrow’s two 18-lap Superbike races will be Rutter’s pursuit of championship leader John Reynolds, who qualified fourth after also improving his time to 1:28.789 in this afternoon’s session. Rutter won the corresponding two races at the last round at Croft a fortnight ago to close the gap on Reynolds to 50 points in the championship standings.

With six races remaining over the final three rounds of the series, there is still a possible 150 points up for grabs and all to play for between two of the UK’s most experienced Superbike campaigners. Rutter and the HM Plant Honda Racing team have worked hard on the set-up of the factory CBR1000RR Fireblade during testing between events. They hope that this will help them to claw back some of the points differential at Honda Racing’s home event.

The Lincolnshire-based HRC-backed factory squad will also be looking to Rutter’s team-mate, Ryuichi Kiyonari, to help the team’s championship challenge. The 21-year-old Japanese star qualified on the second row – for the third consecutive event – in seventh position. This should give him a good platform from which to launch his attack on the podium positions in tomorrow’s races over the 2.2-mile circuit near Louth.

Michael Rutter: “The HM Plant CBR1000RR is well suited to the challenging Cadwell Park circuit. This is one of my favourite tracks and I’m hoping to use this to my advantage tomorrow. It’s good to be on the front row again and I’m confident that we’ve got a good race set-up. I’ll be trying as hard as I did at Croft to pull off another double win, but I am also conscious of how difficult it will be in such a competitive field over race distance.”

Ryuichi Kiyonari: “This is a fantastic circuit and I am looking forward to competing in front of the team’s local fans. I can already feel the atmosphere building before tomorrow’s races. This is one of the few tracks in the UK where I have been able to test the HM Plant Honda. This type of experience shows around such a difficult circuit to learn and I hope that I’ll be able to demonstrate this if I can make a good start from the second row.”

Qualifying times: 1. S. Smart (Kawasaki) 1:28.131; 2. M. Rutter (HM Plant Honda Racing) 1:28.553; 3. T. Hill (Yamaha) 1:28.757; 4. J. Reynolds (Suzuki) 1:28.789; 5. D. Thomas (Ducati) 1:28.840; 6. Y. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1:28.872; 7. R. Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda Racing) 1:29.097; 8. J. Haydon (Yamaha) 1:29.123; 9. J. McGuinness (Kawasaki) 1:29.366; 10. G. Richards (Kawasaki) 1:29.452

www.honda-racing.co.uk

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