Paul Carruthers | July 19, 2008
The battle of Troys at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic went to the wire in Superpole today with Ducati Xerox’s Troy Bayliss edging countryman Troy Corser to earn pole position for tomorrow’s two World Superbike races. Bayliss lapped at 1:58.345 on his flying lap during Superpole, giving him his third pole position of the season and the 21st of his World Superbike career. Corser was next, putting his Yamaha Motor Italia R1 second to prevent what would have been an all Ducati front row. Corser lapped at 1:58.451 to best Bayliss’ teammate Michel Fabrizio by some .4 of a second. Fourth fastest went to yet another Ducati, this one ridden by Italian Max Biaggi. The second row for tomorrow’s races will be led by the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda of Ryuichi Kiyonari, the Japanese rider having his best qualifying effort of the season. Niccolo Canepa also fared well, the Italian riding his Ducati Xerox factory bike to the sixth best time in what is the Ducati test rider’s World Superbike debut. Alstare Suzuki’s Fonsi Nieto ended up seventh with local hero Jakub Smrz filling the second row with the eighth fastest time in Superpole. Neito’s German teammate Max Neukirchner was an uncharacteristic ninth, just ahead of the third member of the team, Yukio Kagayama. Biaggi’s teammate Ruben Xaus ended up 11th with Yamaha Motor Italia’s Noriyuki Haga a disappointing 12th. Even worse was the performance of Carlos Checa. The Hannspree Ten Kate Honda man could do no better than 13th in Superpole and he will start the races from the fourth row of the grid. Final Qualifying 1. Troy Bayliss (Ducati) 1:58.345 2. Troy Corser (Yamaha) 1:58.451 3. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) 1:58.853 4. Max Biaggi (Ducati) 1:59.069 5. Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) 1:59.318 6. Niccolo Canepa (Ducati) 1:59.324 7. Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki) 1:59.360 8. Jakub Smrz (Ducati) 1:59.451 9. Max Neukirchner (Suzuki) 1:59.497 10. Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) 1:59.537
Paul Carruthers | Editor
Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.
