2006 Australian Superbike Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway

Kawasaki Day 2 Report

Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano will start tomorrow's US Grand Prix from the third row of the grid, after qualifying his Ninja ZX-RR in eighth place during a qualifying session held in almost tropical conditions at Laguna Seca this afternoon.

A combination of the Californian sun and a cloudless sky meant that Nakano faced track temperatures as high as 65 degrees centigrade during this afternoon's hour-long timed session; a full ten degrees hotter than experienced during testing in Malaysia or this year's Grand Prix in Qatar.

But while the high temperatures made qualifying a test of physical endurance for the riders it also played into Nakano's hands, as none of the leading group were able to match their lap times on race tyres from this morning's, cooler, free practice session.

This allowed Nakano to close the gap on pole position man, Chris Vermeulen, to less than half-a-second, after changes to the chassis geometry, and a switch to a different profile rear tyre from Bridgestone, improved the overall handling of his Ninja ZX-RR.

Despite this improvement, the 28-year-old Japanese rider knows that tomorrow's race is likely to be an exercise in damage limitation, as he works to defend his eighth position in the current championship standings ahead of the three week summer break.

For Randy de Puniet, similar changes to the chassis and suspension settings on his Ninja ZX-RR led to a significant improvement in his lap time during the first part of this afternoon's timed session, but his unfamiliarity with the Laguna Seca circuit meant that the 25-year-old Frenchman was unable to qualify higher than 15th position, and will therefore start tomorrow's 32-lap US Grand Prix from the fifth row of the grid.

Making his debut at the Laguna Seca circuit this weekend, de Puniet has struggled to get to grips with the infamous Laguna Seca Corkscrew, and the downhill run to the final corner. The Kawasaki pilot intended to improve his line through this critical section by following more experienced riders during qualifying, but was unable to do so after finding himself alone on track for much of the hour-long session.

De Puniet will use tomorrow's 20-minute warm-up period to again focus on this section of the circuit, where he is hopeful of identifying a faster line ahead of tomorrow's race, in which he has his sights set firmly on a top twelve finish.

Shinya Nakano: 8th - 1'23.656
"This afternoon we switched to a different profile rear tyre from Bridgestone, and this definitely made an improvement in how the bike turns into the corners. This was a positive step, and the bike feels a lot better, but we still haven't found the perfect set-up for this track yet. Also, I think we were helped by the fact that, while we made an improvement, the leading riders were a little bit slower on race tyres this afternoon than they were this morning, probably because of the increase in track temperature. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with qualifying. I expected more, and Chris Vermeulen has certainly shown that the qualifying tyres from Bridgestone were up to the job, so it's a little disappointing to find myself only on the third row of the grid. For sure, tomorrow's race will be hard, especially in this heat, but I will be pushing hard to finish as high as possible, in order to safeguard my championship position ahead of the summer break."

Randy de Puniet: 15th - 1'24.592
"It was a hard day today, mainly because of the weather, which was very hot. We found some solutions to our problems with the bike this afternoon, but while it's a lot better than it was, it's still far from perfect, and that hasn't made my job any easier. Neither has the section of track between the Corkscrew and the finish line, where I'm losing a lot of time. I was hoping to follow one of the Americans through this section today, but every time I reached the Corkscrew I found myself on my own. I hope I will get the chance to follow someone through here tomorrow during warm-up, because I need some indication of where to find the fastest line if I am to improve upon my qualifying position in the race. If I can learn the secret to this part of the track, then I think it's still possible to finish inside the top twelve tomorrow."