MUGGAS 3^RD FASTEST

Winston Ten Kate Honda's Karl Muggeridge set the third fastest time in this afternoon's first qualifying session of round 9 of the World Superbike Championship here at the revised 5.9 km Assen circuit in Holland.

Britain's James Toseland took provisional pole position with series leader, Troy Corser, second fastest.

Muggas continuously progressed in this afternoon's session and set his quickest race tyre time on 19 lap old rubber, which is quite promising, especially as the race is only 16 laps.

Muggas comments: "My qualifying lap was a pretty average with the old front I had in. But the bike's been getting better on race tyres and we put a lot of laps on them. All in all we are going into the right direction. We decided to approach this weekend a bit different to the others to make sure we don't end up with the same old grip problem in the race and getting shuffled backwards. This is definitely not what you enjoy! So today we started on the soft side rather than on the hard and see how far we can go with that until it gets terrible. The new bit on the track is not bad, I don't mind it at all, the track still keeps its flow and it gave us a new challenge and a new passing opportunity.

Ronald Ten Kate, Team Manager: "I think that's a pretty good start to the weekend for us. Both riders were quickly up to speed after the break following the last round at Brands Hatch. We still have some improvements to make on both sides of the garage but the consistent weather and dry weekend that's been forecast will help us to work on those areas. We're not quite there yet but the guys are up there were it matters and will be looking to go even better tomorrow".

Weather: sunny, morning 21° C, afternoon  25° C
Track: dry, morning  26° C, afternoon 36° C

MUGGAS TAKES 5^TH IN SUPERPOLE

2^nd Qualifying
Winston Ten Kate rider Karl Muggeridge improved his yesterdays qualifying time by three tenths and will start this afternoon's Superpole lap from 3^rd position. Muggas tried out a couple of different bikes this morning and was able to make a small step forward again, however there is still some more work required on the race setting. The set-up for the qualifying tyres looks pretty good as there is enough grip for that one lap, however they are not quite happy yet with the handling on the race tyres and hope they find more in this afternoon's free practice before Superpole.

Karl comments: "We are still working on the race set-up, every time we make a small step forward, but it's just not quite good enough for that podium I'm aiming for tomorrow. I have the feeling we are not too far away and am confident that we will find some more this afternoon. I specially need to improve that third split, that's were I loose most my time on the race tyres.

Superpole:
Karl Muggeridge finished 5^th  fastest after a bit a disappointing Superpole and will start tomorrow's two 16 lap races here at Assen from the second row of the grid right behind his team-mate Chris Vermeulen who took his first pole position in Superbikes.

But before that, Muggas and his team got some work to do to bring the CBR 1000 back up to speed and make it a podium contender.

Muggas comments: "That was a very average Superpole lap; I made quite a few mistakes and just couldn't find the flow. It's a long track here at Assen, if you make a mistake at the beginning it stretches through the whole lap. The free practice session didn't quite help to the lead up of Superpole either, I had a silly crash going very slow in my out lap and lost 20 minutes through that until the other bike was ready as we were running different parts on them. I gotta say I'm not too confident in the bike at the moment, we definitely gotta sit down and go through everything to see where we went wrong."

Weather: sunny R1  22°C, R2  26°C
Track: dry, R1  28°C, R2 ,  39°C

Muggas 9^th and 8^th
 

Race 1:
Winston Ten Kate Honda rider, Karl Muggeridge, finished in ninth position at the opening race of the 9^th round of the World Superbike Championship here at Ten Kate's home round at the 5.9 km Assen circuit in Holland.

After getting shuffled back at the start Muggas recovered by lap two, caught up to the leaders and was able to run with the leading group in the early stages.

Muggas team-mate Vermeulen, took the lead on lap four and brought home his second victory in the 2005 season, 3.4 seconds ahead of second place James Toseland, with Nori Haga in third.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager:
"Karl started at a good pace and was running with the leading group but his grip level dropped off significantly towards the end so we'll have to look at what changes we can make there."

Karl Muggeridge:
"I got a pretty bad start and got hold back for a lap as I couldn't get passed the others, but managed to catch up to them eventually by lap four. However as I tried so hard I scorched my front and rear tyre, I tagged on the back of them but the grip really dropped off in the second half of the race. The bike still felt too hard and was very difficult to turn - I actually had to push on the bars to get it around the corners. We'll have to look at everything for race two to see if I can keep going at the pace up front for 16 laps."

Race 2:

Australian Karl Muggeridge finished the second 16 lap race after a better start in 8^th position. Muggas was pretty disappointed with suffering again with the same problem as many rounds before. It's very frustrating only being able to hang with the front for a few lap and then having to nurse the girl home to get at least some points.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager: "We were able to fix some of the problems Karl had but he was suffering on rear grip. We had a good test in Lausitzring and I hope we can find something for him there."

Karl Muggeridge comments: "We made a tiny change for the second race, I like the way the front handled it was pretty good for changing directions, but I just had absolutely no rear grip from beginning on. I had a huge moment on lap three, nearly was down, and that's when I lost the front group and Kagayama closed up to me. We really need to solve this rear grip problem, not sure how, but there must be a way. I'm very happy for Chris but I really need some good results for myself in Lausitzring"