MARTIN ON FRONT ROW FOR FPR IN MISANO
25 June 2006 - Foggy PETRONAS Racing

Steve Martin continued his eye-catching Misano display by qualifying on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s sixth round races of the Superbike World Championship.

The Australian finished fourth fastest with an accomplished Superpole lap, improving his previous best time by nearly a full second.

Steve was just 0.08 of a second behind pole-setter James Toseland at the second split, finishing 0.3 seconds off the pole pace with a time of 1:34.178.

Maintaining his progress from yesterday, Steve went into the Superpole shoot-out fourth fastest following the morning qualifying session.

Team-mate Craig Jones managed to put yesterday’s problems behind him and began to set consistently faster times in the afternoon free practice.

Team owner Carl Fogarty said: “Steve did better than I dared imagine – it was a fantastic performance which demonstrates how hard everyone in the team is continuing to work. I just hope he can have a good start tomorrow and run at a pace which will see us in the points.”

Steve said: “It was an excellent end to an excellent day. We have only been in Superpole three times this year and we have made the front row on each occasion. Everyone has done a fantastic job. It wasn’t a perfect lap, but when you go 0.8 seconds faster you cannot fail to be happy. I am not going to get too carried away, but I am very happy with where I am on the grid and a result like that provides confidence for the races.”

Craig said: “Carl stayed very positive after yesterday’s nightmare and suggested that I tried Steve’s settings. Although we have different riding styles, I soon started to get a feel for it. The bike seemed to turn better and I was able to get my confidence back. Hopefully I will get a couple of good starts tomorrow but I will not be going too banzai!”

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