MUGGAS ON PROVISIONAL FRONT ROW

Winston Ten Kate Honda's Karl Muggeridge finished fourth fastest in the opening qualifying session of round 6 of the World Superbike Championship in stinking hot conditions at Santamonica Autodromo in Italy.

It definitely was a day to spend rather on the beach or at the pool than at a race track, but nevertheless the Ten Kate team worked hard to find some grip and get the CBR 1000 around the slippery corners at the 4060 meters long Italian circuit.

At the Magny Cours Test, Muggas tested some different swing arms and linkages which improved the handling of the bike the way he wanted, now at Misano it was time to get those new parts working together and find a balanced setting.

Muggas comments: "In today's sessions we were trying to get the new set-up from the Magny Cours test more balanced. The bike sits a bit at the rear, we tried to adjust this both ways, higher and lower  and also with  different shocks but we were loosing a lot of grip through that and at the end of the day we run out of time. But we got some ideas how we can improve. The bike definitely feels better than the rounds before and I believe we are on the right way."

Suzuki Alstare's Troy Corser set the fastest time in today's qualifying session with a spill on his second fast lap right at the end of the session. Honda's Max Neukirchner finished second fastest in front of Frenchman Regis Laconi.

MUGGAS GRABS FRONT ROW

2nd Qualifying Session:
Winston Ten Kate rider Karl Muggeridge qualified in 8th position for this afternoon's Superpole event after a couple of mistakes on his fast lap in this mornings qualifying session of the 6^th round of the World Superbike Championship here at Misano in Italy.

Muggas isn't too concerned about that at the moment, he's trying to concentrate more on finding some better settings that will give him more grip in this hot conditions. The times on the race tyre were respectable and Muggas was holding fourths position before the Q's got put in.

Karl comments:
"This morning we worked a bit more on the settings and bike has slitley improved from yesterday but we didn't really get everything exactly were we wanted. In the afternoon's free practice we'll try out some different  tyres to see if we can improve the grip. I made a couple of mistakes in my qualifying lap, so that would explain why we didn't go any faster, but the gird want be decided till after Superpole. "

Superpole:
Winston Ten Kate Honda rider Karl Muggeridge improved his grid position by four places and three tenth and jumped up to the front row in this afternoon's Superpole lap. The track temperature was boiling with 52°C and didn't leave a lot of grip for the guys, nevertheless Muggas took three tenths of his fastest lap time and if it wasn't too the last split we might have even seen him further up.

Muggas comments: "I've been very careful with accelerating and tried not to make any mistakes on the Superpole lap, it was pretty good and I'm happy enough with front row. In the free practice session this afternoon we tried a lot of things again, different shocks and fronts, and the bike got improved again by a fraction. The race set-up isn't too bad, we made a small change again just before Superpole and it seems like it worked, it was my fastest lap all weekend."

Troy Corser will start tomorrow's 25 lap race from pole position with Muggas team-mate Vermeulen in second and Laconi in third. It's going too be a couple of very difficult races tomorrow with the temperatures down here for the machinery, tyres and riders.

Weather: sunny R1  32°C, R2  32°C
Track: dry, R1  48°C, R2 dry,  53°C

MUGGAS TOOK 10^TH AND 7^TH IN BOILING HOT MISANO

Race 1:
Winston Ten Kate Honda's Karl Muggeridge finished tenth in an eventful, two-part opening race of the World Superbike championship sixth round at Misano, Italy today. The race was won by French rider Regis Laconi, after a red flag on lap six was followed by an aborted re-start.

After leading the second part of the 24-lapper around the 4.060km Misano circuit, Vermeulen and Muggeridge were separated by Laconi after three laps. With 10 laps to go Muggeridge was forced to slow down as the grip problems increased and he didn't have much energy left to fight it due to a stomach problem he picked up the day before. Muggeridge eventually finished in tenth place.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager: "That was a hectic start to the race with a red flag early on and then the aborted re-start. It was certainly hard for the team in these hot conditions and unsettling for all the riders. It was a strong podium from Chris though, which helps his championship position. In the difficult conditions today, it was a top job, I think. Karl developed a bit of a stomach problem yesterday and it's a little worse today and has left him with little energy. But we'll try hard to search for some more grip in race two."

Muggas comments: "A lot of problems, really - I'm not feeling so great with this stomach problem that just left me with no energy after seven or eight laps. On top of the other problems that everyone else seems to have, it was just really, really hard work. We make a couple of small changes for race two and I hope I'll just feel a bit stronger."

Race 2:
Australian Karl Muggeridge finished the second 25 lap race in seventh place after another good start of the grid, where as his team-mate Vermeulen took another second place finish and Laconi doubled up his victory.

Muggas spent most of the time between the two sessions in the Clinica Mobile to get his stomach sorted and get some fluids back into him, which helped a great deal and allowed him to take some valuable points to the next round.

Muggas comments: "That was really tough today with the heat and it didn't help that I didn't feel very well. But I think I've made the best out of it I could, but I gotta say without the guys from Clinica Mobile I wouldn't have been able to start. Thanks guys!. We made some small adjustments to the bike after the first race and CBR 1000 felt pretty good. I should have really finished around my starting position if I was in better condition, so it's really a shame I couldn't make most out of this weekend. I'll get myself sorted and look forward to Brno in three weeks time, as I know we made some good progress this weekend and are in the position to get them."