Login | Password dimenticata? | Registrati

SS Kyalami, qualifying: second row for Lascorz

In SBK

17 maggio 2009

SS Kyalami, qualifying: second row for Lascorz

Joan Lascorz was top Ninja ZX-6R qualifier for round six of the WSS championship, with his team-mate Katsuaki Fujiwara still inside the top ten.

Lascorz went fifth on the grid, just missing a front row start as he worked hard on overcoming the disruptive effects of Kyalami's bumpy track surface.

Fujiwara was tenth from 28 riders, and starts the 23-lap race on Sunday from row three.

The 4.246km Kyalami circuit saw a gentle fall of rain early in the first Supersport session but the clouds soon disappeared and track temperatures rose to 24°C in the African winter sun.

As Kyalami is a track which has not been used by WSS since 2002, there was one additional free practice session on Friday, to allow riders and teams to familiarise themselves with the layout.

Joan Lascorz: “I have some problems on the bumps because the bike is moving around too much and the bike does not turns as well as I want it to. Because of that it’s hard to keep the speed exiting the corner. We have improved the bike in these areas, but not quite enough yet. Tomorrow in warm-up we will move one stage more in this direction and then we will be ready to race.”

Katsuaki Fujiwara: “Our gearbox and engine settings have improved from day one, not so much of a big change, but a small step. The engine did not feel as powerful as we wanted but in terms of the cornering, the bumps were not as bad for me as some other riders. I would like to have a little bit more low gear corner exit acceleration at this track. But I think we are set to race and race well.”