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World
SuperSport 2002 - Round 4 - Sugo Saturday - Qualifying 2 / Combined - Ten Kate Report Apr 20th, 2002 |
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Things didn't go according to plan for the Ten Kate Honda team at Sugo
today. After a successful first day's qualifying the team took a step
backwards as unexpected problems beset the last session of qualifying. "We all expected a little more from final qualifying," admitted Team Manager Ronald ten Kate. "Iain MacPherson had bad luck today, he had only ridden three laps before an unfortunate collision with one of the Wild Card riders wrecked his bike. We had hoped to get him into a rhythm so he could build up to a good qualifying performance but the crash threw those plans out of the window. With only one bike and not a lot of time left in the session it was a real struggle for Iain." MacPherson confirmed Ronald ten Kate's sentiments, "I'm just not having any luck this weekend," said MacPherson. "I haven't been able to complete as many laps as I needed to all weekend. In final qualifying I only managed three laps before I got tangled up with Yamaguchi and crashed." Later, on his spare bike, MacPherson looked set for the front row as he raced through the first three splits only marginally off the pole pace. Unfortunately a big slide stopped his charge. This time MacPherson's luck held and he saved the slide without crashing. Fabien Foret just missed a front row start when fellow Honda rider Karl Muggeridge pushed him off the front row late in the session. "We took a step backwards on set up today," observed Foret. "Yesterday things seemed to be going in the right direction but the changes we made today reversed our progress. I would have liked to have got on the front row but the race is the important thing. Now we need to work hard to try to get things right for the race." Ronald ten Kate realizes there's plenty of work still to be done before Sunday's 25 lap race, "We want to give our riders the best possible set up for the race so they can both show their true potential. We have a great package, the two riders, the Pirelli tyres, the WP Suspension and the Honda CBR600FS bikes, they are all first class components. But we just need to find the set up that allows them all to work together properly. You can be sure the whole team will work very hard to achieve that goal."
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