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World
SuperBike 2002 - Round 3 - Kyalami Friday - Qualifying 1 Apr 5th, 2002 |
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Troy Bayliss squeezed his Infostrada Ducati to the provisional pole
position time after the first day of SBK qualifying at Kyalami, although
his best lap status was far from safe from at least two of his main
rivals. Bayliss’ swiftest flying circuit of 1’41”961 was inside the previous regulation qualifying record of Ben Bostrom (1’42”089, set in 2001) but both Colin Edwards (Castrol Honda) and Bostrom (L&M Ducati) were only hundredths of a second behind the reigning World Champion. The last place on the provisional front row was scored by the last of three official Ducati riders, Ruben Xaus, who went just over half a second slower than his Infostrada team-mate Bayliss. The quickest non-official factory rider proved to be Neil Hodgson, on an HM Plant Ducati, 0.726 from the provisional pole time and fifth fastest. Noriyuki Haga, on the lone Aprilia rode to sixth on the first day, while double 1998 Kyalami SBK race winner Pierfrancesco Chili took his private Ducati NCR twin to seventh and proved to be the last rider inside one second of Bayliss’ time. Lucio Pedercini continued to impress in qualifying, with the Ducati privateer in eighth place, albeit almost 0.4 seconds slower than the Ducati of Chili. Juan Borja’s Spaziotel-sponsored Ducati took ninth place, with James Toseland netting the last top-ten placing. Hitoyasu Izutsu was the top four-cylinder factory rider, running into 11th on his factory Kawasaki, while Italian privateer Serafino Foti separated Izutsu from his team-mate, Chris walker, in 15th place. Broc Parkes scored the last provisional Superpole qualifying position, beating the Alstare Suzuki factory machine of Gregorio Lavilla, who was a disappointed 17th.
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