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

Anthony West Day 2 Report

Australian privateer Ant West will start 18th on the grid in tomorrow’s 250cc Czech Republic Motorcycle Grand Prix after struggling in practice and qualifying during the past two days.

West holds ninth position in this year’s 250cc world championship series after 10 of the 16 rounds. He has finished in the top 10 on seven occasions in the past eight rounds on a non-factory Kiefer-BOS Racing Aprilia.

The 25-year-old rode a total of 65 laps in two practice sessions and two qualifying sessions on the 5.4km Brno circuit yesterday and today. He claimed a position on the fifth row of the grid for the race with a best lap of 2-minutes 5.757-seconds in today’s second qualifying session.

Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo, who leads the 250cc world championship, won pole position as fastest qualifier at Brno on a works Fortuna Aprilia. West’s best past result at Brno was finishing fourth in the 250cc grand prix in 2004 on an Aprilia.

ANT WEST QUOTES: "We’ve had some dramas with the bike this weekend, and I’m much further back on the time-sheets than where I want to be. In the first practice the engine wasn’t revving past 12,000-rpm until near the end of the session. That meant I didn’t have a (bike) set-up for qualifying yesterday. There was no grip in the front, and the rear spring was way too hard. My team changed some engine parts before today’s practice, but then a spark plug broke. The engine and set-up were better for the second qualifying. However, I ran out of time to get everything working the way I’d like. We still need to make the bike turn better because every time I exit a corner it wants to run wide.”