World SuperBike 2001 - Round 3 - Friday qualifying
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Ducati Infostrada rider Troy Bayliss topped the timesheets in the first day of qualifying for Sunday’s Australian round of the World Superbike Championship. The Australian’s time of 1m33.577s came in the final few minutes of the session after Corser (Aprilia) and Edwards (Honda) had set the pace in cold but sunny conditions. “This was our first time back at Phillip Island after a long while”, said Bayliss, “and it takes time to get the right feeling. We had problems with the engine management system on one bike half-way through the session, but then the boys worked hard and came up with a good setting on the spare bike before the end. We set a good time but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to improve tomorrow” Bayliss led an Australian 1-2 as Aprilias Troy Corser took second place at the end of the afternoon, one-hour session. "The weather forecast for today was not good, so it was a relief to get through the day in dry conditions. The winds were quite strong all day and it certainly gave us a bit of a shove down the front straight in the morning un-timed session. I really like racing this track - it's a real rider's circuit - and it's great to be able to race in front of my family and all the Aussie fans. The Aprilia is working pretty well round here and it's good to see my team mate Regis set the third quickest time - just behind me. Tomorrow, we'll make a few adjustments and then see what happens in SuperPole. It would be nice to win SuperPole, but I'm concentrating on the two races on Sunday. That's the important thing, so as long as I'm on the front row at the end of tomorrow, I'll be happy." Corser's team-mate Regis Laconi was third quickest with Suzuki's Pier-Francesco Chili fourth to complete the provisional front row of the grid for Sunday's two 22-lap races.
"I would improve my riding feeling so I decided to take off the carbon
guard" said Regis Laconi. "I agreed the trainer opinion so we considered this way also. The bike feeling is getting much better and I can suffer a bit more pain when I get out to the bike. But the lap time improved
and I was pushing hard. The third lap time of today showed that I reached a good bike feeling. I tested many tyres for the race, so I could find a good one. With the qualifying tyres I was not so lucky ,at first a racers was going into the turn so slowly that almost I was down, than such a kind of
traffic". "I had chances to get a better lap this afternoon but each time I was baulked by slower riders," Edwards explained. "But that happens. We'll get on with some more set-up work on the machine overnight and I'm confident of a much better lap tomorrow - if the rain stays away!" Californian Ben Bostrom moved up the timesheets after a slow start to finish the one-hour session in a positive sixth place. The Kyalami winner was confident he could get further up tomorrow after making some changes to his Ducati 996R Factory in time for SuperPole. “We improved but we still need to go quicker on race tyres”, commented Bostrom. “We’re going to try some different gearings and changes tonight and then fine-tune the set-up tomorrow and go for a quick time. I’ve already found a couple of decent tyres and we’ll run them back-to-back tomorrow to see which is the best for the race” Okada finished the day 7th quickest - "I was very much like Colin and was slowed in the traffic. But I'm happy with the machine and Michelin have some good tyres for us here. I really would like some track time tomorrow in the dry so hopefully the rain will stay away." Okada added: "The machine is working well around here, the engine feels strong and we've just got one or two minor adjustments to make to the suspension set-up for tomorrow." Lavilla 8th - “We now have made a lot of improvements to our set-up for qualifying. We are a lot faster over one or two laps at this track - so now all I hope is that no one gets in the way when we are going for it.” Bayliss' Ducati Infostrada team-mate Ruben Xaus was unable to do many laps in the one-hour session as he first had a few minor problems and was then slowed by traffic when trying to improve on his ninth position. “I had a few technical problems and so I didn’t do many laps”, declared Xaus. “In particular I have to improve in two curves, which I’m taking like I did in Supersport – in the second left-hander and the one after the Honda curve, I still have to get used to the power of my Ducati 996R Factory. Fridays for me are learning days and then on Saturday I try to improve”. Nevertheless the Spaniard was 9th quickest. Yanagawa 10th - “We know the track is very abrasive on tyres. There are also only a couple of left hand corners so we have to be careful about our tyre choices. Tomorrow we’ll test a mixture of Dunlop tyres and see if we can make any improvements.” Hitoyasu Izutsu returned to the team for only his second Superbike World Championship race this season and knows he can improve on his 11th placed time tomorrow. “We are making a few changes before tomorrow. I really like this circuit because it is a fun riding the Kawasaki here and I really enjoying being with the Team again."
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