MUGGAS PROVISIONAL 18th

Winston Ten Kate rider Karl Muggeridge qualified 18th in the first qualifying session at round one of the World Superbike Championship here in Lasoil, Qatar.

It didn't quite go to plan for Muggas and the Winston Ten Kate team on this first day of the 2005 Superbike Championship. In the morning free practice it was raining here in Qatar for the first time after four years apparently. As there are only three wet tyres per rider available throughout the weekend, the decision was made to save them for more important sessions.

In the afternoon's qualifying Muggas who's still suffering from the severe flu tried hard to get the CBR 1000 working around the corners, but they just couldn't quite find the right settings which gave him enough grip to complete a fast lap. There's only to hope that tomorrow's morning qualifying will be dry so he'll get a second chance to make it into Superpole.

Muggas comments: "I'm very disappointed with this afternoon's result. I know we could have done much better und should be at least in the top 15. It seams that everything was a bit a problem this afternoon, for one thing I seem not to be able to get rid of this flu, it just closes my whole head and it's difficult to concentrate for the whole lap. Then we were also having some problems with the breaks and the front grip. It just felt like I was on a complete different bike as at the test. We will have to sit down tonight and go through everything again to make sure we are ready for tomorrow."

RAIN HOLDS MUGGAS BACK ON 18TH

Honda CBR 1000 rider Karl Muggeridge will start tomorrow's 18 lap race from 18th place on the grid here at round one of the World Superbike Championship at Losail circuit in Qatar.

The chances of rain are very slim here in the desert of Qatar, but somehow the weather seems to have decided to get rid of all the rain this weekend. So the Superbike riders had to face another wet session this morning which inabled any of the riders to improve their yesterdays qualifying times, which forced Muggas to miss out on Superpole and keep 18th place of the grid.

The Australian who is still suffering of the flu finds it hard to keep a clear mind and being fully concentrated: "We tried out some different settings this afternoon and they bike seems to feel a bit more stable and I get a better feel for it. I just don't have the energy at the moment, but I hope by tomorrow I will feel a little bit better again. I will try to get a good start and then take the race from there and hopefully I can finish in the top ten. It hasn't been a great start to season for us yet, but it can only get better!"

The Superpole was to be declared as a wet Superpole with a few dry laps at the beginning of the session and a few at the end. So timing was very crucial.

MUGGAS IN TOP TEN AT SBK DEBUT 

Winston Ten Kate Honda rider Karl Muggeridge finished 9th in his first World Superbike Race at round 1 of the WSB Championship here in Losail, Qatar. Muggas got a good start from his 18th grid position and moved up to 11 place in lap one which he was able to hold till the race got red flagged due to rain and had to be restarted with 8 laps to go.

Muggas comments: I'm still struggling for energy and began to feel really drained for the last three laps of the first part of the race. So I was kind of glad to have a little break half way through. Our front end settings worked the tyres really hard, so we made some adjustments for the second race."

The race was one by Suzuki Alstare rider Troy Corser in front of Laconi and his team-mate Kagayama.

In the second World Superbike race Muggas had to start from pit lane on his second bike, as the thread in the swing arm on bike no. 1 came loose. So it was going to be even tougher for him but he worked his way from dead last back up to 16th where he got into a bit of fearing bashing with Walker which finished the race for both of them.

Muggas comments: "The bike was working definitely better in the second race, even I had to jump on the spare one. I was going pretty good until I came up to Walker, I saw a clear line to pass him and then suddenly his front wheel appeared back into it and basically speared me. Things like that just happen, that's racing. I look forward to get back to Europe and get some rest and become healthy again to go to round two at Phillip Island."

The second race was won by the other Suzuki rider Kagayma in front of Laconi and Corser.

The Winston Ten Kate Squad as well as the rest of the SBK paddock will be off to Valencia in a couple of weeks time to get some more laps under their wheels. Muggeridge is looking forward to these testing days which should give him a chance to finally learn the bike a bit better, as he hasn't been able to do a lot of testing yet due to rain and sickness.