World SuperSport - Round 9 - Assen - Friday Qualifying
| Works Kawasaki rider Andrew
Pitt today maintained his challenge for the World Supersport Championship
motorcycle title, despite his crew chief and fellow-Australian Scott
Breedin suffering injuries in a pit-lane incident at the Assen circuit in
the Netherlands. Pitt finished fifth fastest in the opening qualifying session for Sunday's 10th and penultimate championship round. Breedin was struck by a motorcycle soon after the session started. The Victorian fell heavily on his head, and suffered headaches and a cut leg. He was taken to the on-site Medical Centre for an examination and was unable to assist Pitt for the remainder of the session. Japan's Katsuaki Fujiwara claimed provisional pole position on the 6km Assen circuit with the quickest qualifying lap of 2-min 8.497-secs. Pitt's best lap on his Fuchs Kawasaki ZX-6R was 0.652-secs slower than Fujiwara, and he set the time in the closing minutes of the session when riding with Scottish team-mate Iain MacPherson. The track was damp when the session began, but conditions were dry for the final 15-mins. Pitt holds second position in the championship, and the 25-year-old is locked in a three-way battle for the title with Italian Paolo Casoli and German Jorg Teuchert. Casoli was third fastest in the opening qualifying session at Assen on a Belgarda Yamaha, and Teuchert was 15th on a Wilbers Suspension Yamaha. Casoli leads the championship with 122 points, followed by Pitt on 116, and Teuchert 113. The second and final qualifying session at Assen will be held tomorrow. Pitt's time in the first qualifying session left him with a provisional second-row starting position. Andrew Pitt - 2nd - "Scott (Breedin) got hit when a bike flew out of the pits next to ours. I turned around and he was lying on the ground. His leg was cut and he was pretty sore so they took him to the Medical Centre. Luckily no bones were broken, and he hopefully he will be back working in pit lane tomorrow. After the dramas I felt quite happy to finish the session fifth. It's not so bad because if it rains tomorrow then we'll be on the second row. (Paolo) Casoli is ahead of me, but (Jorg) Teuchert is quite a long way back and they're the guys we're racing for the championship. The weather can turn very quickly here so we'll have to see what happens. The (qualifying) session started when it was damp and spitting. I went out on 'wet' tyres, but I only did one lap and came back in. I did my best lap near the end when Iain (MacPherson) and I went out together. I used up three sets of qualifying tyres and we went quicker and quicker each time. My bike was a little unstable through the fast turns at first, but we made some changes to give it more control through the rear suspension to balance it up. It's still not quite right, so we will keep working away on the set-up tomorrow. This is one of the longer tracks, and the crowns in the middle of the road make it different to other places we race at. The front can get light when you go over the crowns so you've got to be careful." Karl Muggeridge - "Well there’s not much to say, I didn’t really get the chance to contest this afternoon. We were having technical problems with both my bikes and so had to stop half way through the session. The set-up we’ve got so far was pretty good, but we’ll have to see tomorrow morning. Hopefully the weather is on our side tomorrow and brings us some dry time in the afternoon’s qualifying, otherwise it won’t be looking good for Sunday." |
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