World Supersport 2004 - Round 1 - Valencia - Friday Qualifying

The first timed qualifying session of the 2004 World Supersport season delivered the Ten Kate pairing of Karl Muggeridge and Broc Parkes provisional front row starts on their CBR600RR machines.

A close contest on a dry track was blighted for all competitors as the winds picked up in intensity, making it difficult to hold a line on the tortuous Valencia track layout. The relatively cool track temperatures also prevented any of the top riders from setting times close to those which saw the Ten Kate pairing dominate in the final official pre-season tests at this very circuit.

Second quickest despite the trying conditions was Karl Muggeridge, the first of Ten Kate's Aussie riders on the timesheets, although he and Parkes set an identical time of 1:39.128, well down on his personal best from pre-season testing. His team-mate Parkes, classified third quickest after being fastest at one stage, preserved this tyre supply for the second day of qualifying. He was one of the first riders to break out of the 1:40 bracket, in his first full season for the team.

Muggeridge, the winner of the last three WSS races in the 2003 season for Ten Kate explained, "The wind was ten times worse than in the recent tests here. It's not so much the intensity but the gusty nature of it. You can be committed to a corner and then the wind gusts and puts you off line. If the front end lifts exiting a corner the wind just whips the wheel out of line so it's really difficult to put in consistent laps. The wind is also blowing sand across the track and that's making it slippery as well. The bike feels perfect for perfect conditions but we need the impossible - a bike that also works perfectly in gusty wind conditions! If the wind drops we can go faster tomorrow."

"I got a good start out there but I did the whole session on only one tyre," said Parkes, explaining that day two should be more important than the first session. "I kept most of my tyres for the second day of qualifying, when I hope the conditions will be better. If the wind drops a bit we can go faster for sure, and I'm happy with the set-up of the bike." Parkes, like his peer group, has one more qualifying session in which to improve his time and go for pole position.

"The wind conditions are what is holding us and everyone back, and we will make up the 1.5 or seconds we expected to have once the wind drops," said Team Manager Ronald Ten Kate. "We are happy with our performance because the bikes are working well and it is still the same name at the top of the timesheets, even in these conditions."

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