MUGGAS 3^rd FASTEST

Winston Ten Kate Honda's Karl Muggeridge qualified on the provisional third place for tomorrow's Superpole Session at round four of the World Superbike Championship here at Monza Autodromo in Italy.

Muggeridge spent a lot of time thinking about the handling of the CBR 1000 and how it could be improved since the rather sad weekend at Valencia two weeks ago. And after long discussions with the suspension and data crew they seemed to have found a more balanced setting which makes the bike much easier to ride than before. In fact Muggas mentioned happily: "I can actually ride the bike now, as before the beast was riding me and I hang on praying it doesn't throw me off"

Karl lapped the 5'793 meter long circuit in 1'48.203 on his race-tyres which is faster than Laconi's last year Superpole time on a Q with 1'48.258. On his qualifying lap Muggas matched his race tyre time with 1'48.281, so he didn't really get any better time out of the soft tyre as he went a bit too easy on it.

Muggas comments: "We made a lot of good changes today with the re-evolution on the chassis the bike feels a lot more user-friendly. I'm very happy with the progress we made so far but we will have to keep working to find a bit more grip and fine tune the handling plus there is also some improvement still to be made on the brakes. The Qualifying lap was a bit a waste of the tyre, I nursed it too much on my first lap and thought I could get a second one in with it, instead of going hard on it right away. It showed half way through the second lap that it was definitely built only for one lap. Anyway I'm happy enough with where we ended up today, and know there's more to come for tomorrow's sessions."
 

MUGGAS SECURED FRONT ROW

2nd Qualifying
Winston Ten Kate rider Karl Muggeridge, set the fastest qualifying time prior to this afternoon's Superpole event. In glorious sunshine, Muggas first eclipsed Troy Corer's fastest time by six tenths of a second and Regis Laconis 2004 Superpole by over a second.

Karl comments:
"It certainly feels good to be at the top of the times but it's not over yet. We improved the chassis a little bit again this morning and we are working on some improvement for the brakes, which are very important here at Monza. I definitely think we found the direction we've been looking for. We'll see what Superpole brings this afternoon."

Superpole
After a disappointing Superpole for Muggas he will start tomorrow's two 18-lap races from front row of the grid at round four of the World Superbike Championship at the historic 5.8 km Monza Autodromo.

As the fastest rider heading into this afternoon's Superpole event, Muggeridge lost six tenths of a second going into the first chicane on his one flying lap but recovered enough to post the fourth fastest time.

Muggas comments: "Oh, man - that's very disappointing. It just all went wrong at the braking point at the end of the start finish straight, so I missed the first corner and got that chicane really bad. I think I was about ninth after the first split - six tenths down - which shows how badly it was screwed up. The rest of the lap went great and I managed to climb back into fourth position. It's a real shame, because I've been comfy all weekend since the first session on Friday morning. We've been moving the package forward in each session since then and that allowed me to be fastest going into Superpole. That's the nature of the event though. I'm real happy on my race tyre and confident of battling well at the front but, for sure, pole would have been great."

6th AND 4TH FOR MUGGAS IN MONZA

Race 1:
Karl Muggeridge recovered to sixth place in the fourth round of the World Superbike championship race at Monza dtoday after a start-line incident left him towards the back of the field on the opening lap.

Starting from the front row with eventual race winner, Troy Corser, Muggas was clipped by another rider which damaged his clutch lever. The Australian was able to work his way back through the field, however, to take his best result in his debut Superbike season.

Muggas comments: "My start was ok, not the fastest but also not the slowest, when I just got hit by another rider, knocked my left hand of the handle bar, the front tucked under and I was so lucky I didn't crash. The incident also ripped the clutch lever off, which made it then obviously very hard to finish the start. So I found myself last into the first corner and 18^th after the first lap. So I thought, well let's just give it a go and I worked my way through up the field and got some points but I was certainly hoping for more."

Race 2:
Karl Muggeridge, finished the second race of round four of the World Superbike Championship here in Monza in a solid fourth place behind Chris Vermeulen, Regis Laconi and Troy Corser. The 18 lapper around the historic 5.8km Monza circuit developed into a thrilling battle with the top four riders breaking away and swapping positions in each other's slipstream.

Muggeridge got a better start in race two and got away with the top four in a very fast race and made it for a short time into 3^rd position on lap 16 but wasn't able to secure his first Superbike podium due to a small mistake on the final lap.

Muggas comments: "I'm pretty happy with the result, also I would have loved to be on that podium with Chris, I just couldn't keep up with him, I tried to sleep stream him a few times on the straight but his bike just pulled away from me. So than I got into the battle with Troy and got up to third before I made a little mistake exiting the first chicane on the final lap and Troy managed to open a little gap. I should have beaten him but it wasn't to be. But the bike is much better and it's been a good weekend for us. There's still heaps of work to do to improve it in some areas but we've got something now that can take us forward for the rest of the season."

Ronald ten Kate - team manager: Ronald ten Kate - team manager: "I was very pleased for Karl's fourth place as well, although I think maybe he deserved to get on the podium. His perseverance and determination after the problems of the first few rounds has really impressed me. -There are still 16 races left in this years' championship so anything can still happen. We will hopefully carry this form on to Silverstone and look for even better results."