Troy finished twelfth in first qualifying at Brno today, but is confident that he will be on the front row of the grid after tomorrow’s final qualifying and Superpole. A limited number of soft tyres meant that Troy had to conserve his quota and use probably a harder tyre then he would’ve liked in this afternoon’s timed session. And it was a hard tyre that caused Troy to suffer a low-speed crash five minutes from the end - just as as was about to complete his fastest lap of the day. Fortunately, Troy was able to re-mount and ride back to the pits, but then the rain suddenly came down with a vengeance and Troy didn’t go out again. James Toseland (Honda) was the quickest today, with a time of 2:02.349 - well over a second faster then the lap record. Second is Fonsi Nieto (Kawasaki), ahead of Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati), Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha), Karl Muggeridge (Honda) and Troy’s team mate Yukio Kagayama.

TROY - 12th, 2:03.475
Because I missed the test here recently, I was effectively three days behind my main rivals today. So, I’ve used most of the day getting used to the track and working on a good bike set-up. In the morning we worked quite a lot of getting a good balance and we carried on that way in the afternoon. But it was much hotter in the afternoon and because the grip level decreases the hotter it becomes it was not possible to go faster. I was on a hard front when I crashed this afternoon - just three turns from what would’ve been my fastest lap. I just didn’t have much feeling from the front tyre, and I suppose it was no big surprise when I lost it and crashed. For a moment I almost recovered it, but it almost flat on the track at that stage! I’m still not completely happy about the clutch, so that’s another area that we’ll work on tomorrow. Despite finishing 12th today, we know which direction to take tomorrow and I’m confident that we’ll be on the front row.

See ya,
Troy