World Superbike 2008 - Round Four

World Superbike 2008 - Round Four - Assen

Day 1 Report - HRC

Rea claims provisional front row start

HANNspree Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathan Rea posted the fastest time in this morning’s free practice session and claimed a provisional front row start in the afternoon qualifying with a third best time of 1’41.857.

Jonathan Rea, 3rd, 1'41.857;
“We have started the session with a good base setting today so I have mainly concentrated on learning the circuit. I have no previous experience at this track and am still learning every time out, but it has been a lot of fun to ride here. You can run in hard at some places due to the camber, it flows well and it’s fast which suits my riding style.”

“Everything has been going steady and well so far. We’ve tried a few tires to make up our mind on which one is going to be our race tire, but we won’t know until we put a race distance on one in tomorrow’s session.”

“So far I am happy to be on the provisional front row and am confident there is a lot more to come.”

Andrew Pitt, 12th, 1'42.483;
“My start of the day hasn’t been too good. I am too far down the list and will have to improve tomorrow.”

“We’ve just tried too many new things today in the front fork set-up. We’ve tested two different gearboxes on both bikes and then concentrated on the electronics and getting both bikes to work the same.”

“After losing the front in the Valencia race we’re trying to improve the front fork setting and get the corner entry feeling back again. We’ve fitted a new fork and put a few laps on that.”

“I have to get back into the rhythm of things. There are just too many different things at the moment so for tomorrow’s session we’ll have to make things a bit more standard in the setting and go from there.”

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D.F. Honda’s Karl Muggeridge finished 12th fastest in today’s opening qualifying session here at round four of the World Superbike Championship in Assen Netherlands.

Muggeridge and his team were mainly working on the chassis in today’s two sessions, remaining calm and trying to get as many laps in as possible. They had two test out also a new swing arm which improved the entry of the bike however still seems to flex to much at the exit.

Muggas comments: “We’ve been concentrating all day to find a good balance for the bike which is very important here with the banking around Assen which puts a lot more force on the bike. A good balance will get us quicker and smoother through the kinks. In the middle of the session I jumped on my other bike to try out the new swing arm, but unfortunately we could only get a few laps in, as we ended up with electric problems again. The lap times were improving and we should have really finished better than twelfth. But the field is very strong this year and there is still a few factory boys behind us so I guess we are not too bad of”

With five minutes to go the track temperature dropped and a few guys slid off trying to put a faster time which caused two red flags.

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WORK IN PROGRESS FOR JOSHUA AND ROBBIN

On the opening day of the Dutch World Supersport Championship round at Assen today, Team HANNspree Stiggy Motorsport Honda riders Robbin Harms and Joshua Brookes ended the first and provisional qualifying session in 10th and 13th places respectively. Australian Broc Parkes (Yamaha) finished fastest overall with a time of 1.41.416

Robbin – 10th, 1.42.260
We are working on finding a good set up and we have had some difficulties today, especially in this morning’s free practice. This afternoon we made better progress because we found out what changes needed to be made. Slowly it is getting better and better. At the last round in Valencia we struggled all weekend trying to find a good set-up but it was frustrating because couldn’t quite put our finger on the problem. We are now in a much better position and already know what to change in order to fix the issues. Apart from the set-up, I’m happy with the engine power and positive we will be able to go faster tomorrow.

Joshua – 13th, 1.42.593
I managed to cut a second off my lap time from this morning, which was good, even though I dropped from 10th to 13th place! The engine and top speed of the bike feels OK but my main issue is consistency. One lap was really good and the next one not. The bike also felt a bit nervous and sensitive at one point today, and that I didn’t like at all. There’s definitely room for improvement and I am sure we will be able to improve. Tomorrow will be a different story.

Johan Stigefelt (Team Manager)
Today we have been working hard in order to find a good set-up for tomorrow and Sunday. We didn’t really manage good lap times and get good qualifying positions but, more importantly, we found out lots of valuable data, which we will use in tomorrow’s practices. Both riders are working well and, as soon as they get correct and comfortable settings on their machinery, I’m sure they will do well in qualifying tomorrow.