A report of qualifying below (not by me), but I just wanted to point out an interesting fact, one quarter of the SBK and supersport fields combined are Australian.
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Troy Corser will start the opening round of the World Superbike championship
from pole position after a closely-fought Superpole final qualifying
competition at the Valencia circuit in Spain on Saturday.
Corser leads the way for the two races at the 2.95-mile track and in second
place on the grid will be his new team-mate Regis Laconi, a former winner at
the Spanish track on a Michelin-shod Yamaha two years ago.
Colin Edwards (Castrol Honda - Michelin) will start the defence of his world
title from third place on the grid with British Ducati rider Neil Hodgson
fourth to complete the front row for what promises to be two exciting races
at the opening round.
The second row is led by Ducatišs Ben Bostrom in fifth place with his
team-mate Troy Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada - Michelin) sixth, followed by
championship newcomers Tady Okada (Castrol Honda - Michelin) and Ruben Xaus
(Ducati Infostrada - Michelin) in seventh and eighth places respectively.
Honda team-mates Pere Riba and Fabien Foret battled it out for pole position
in the World Supersport championship qualifying with Foret gaining the
advantage in the closing stages.
Piergiorgio Bontempi starts from third and the front row is completed by
Suzuki rider Katsuaki Fujiwara. Vittoriano Guareschi (Dienza Ducati Racing -
Michelin Pilot) qualified in 10th place but was just 0.2s off a front row
start as the top 16 riders were separated by less than one second.
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