2002 World SuperBike Championship - Round 5 - Monza - SuperPole

Eric Bostrom blitzed his way around his Superpole lap at Monza this afternoon, recording his best time of the weekend to claim a second row start for tomorrow's two 18-lap Superbike races.

The Californian, standing in for regular Fuchs Kawasaki rider, Hitoyasu Izutsu, hadn't even seen Monza before arriving at the circuit on Thursday, but that didn't stop him backing his factory Kawasaki ZX-7RR into almost every turn on his way to setting the eighth fastest time in Superpole. Despite wowing the crowd with his hang it all out style, the reigning AMA Supersport 600 champion was surprised to learn he'd qualified so far up the grid.

'I don't feel I belong on the second row, because my Superpole lap didn't really feel all that good,' said Bostrom. 'This is a tough track at which to get into a groove; it's not so bad when you string a few laps together, but it's difficult to go out cold and put in one fast lap when you don't really know the place that well. The track flows, so if you mess up in one turn, it affects your whole lap, and I think that's what happened to quite a few riders out there this afternoon. We've not been that much faster on qualifying rubber compared to race tyres, so I'm hopeful that we'll be able to continue the improvement we've seen in each session so far during the races tomorrow.'

Chris Walker saw any chance of a high grid position disappear when a missed gear and a near highside at Ascari lost him valuable time on his Superpole lap. Walker will start tomorrow's two races from the fourth row of the grid - or the barbeque row as he refers to it; '...because you always get smoked at the start.'

'My Superpole lap started out well, but then I missed a gear going into the left-hander, ran in way too deep and then ran wide on the exit. I got on the gas early at the next turn, trying to make up time, but the back end stepped out and had me out of the seat; game over,' said Walker. 'It's going to be tough starting from the fourth row tomorrow. This is a real fast track at which slipstreaming plays a vital part and once the leading group manage to get away, they're never going to come back to you. It's just going to be a case of head down and go for it tomorrow I guess.'