Stiggy – Miller – Day One | World SBK
- From: 'the Wire' | Published: May 29th, 2009 - 11:55 pm
First day of Superbike qualifying at Miller Motorsports Park
High temperatures and moderate lap times opened the first day of qualifying for the Stiggy Honda squad in the seventh round of the Superbike World Championship at the Miller Motorsports Park in Utah today.?
Leon Haslam and Jake Zemke?who is wearing the Stiggy colours for the second time, substituting the injured John Hopkins?started their first laps around the 4.907 km long track in Utah in a moderate but positive way.
Haslam showed his pace and rhythm are not so bad, but is still looking for the adjustments to further improve his lap times and find the connection with the front of the field. The Miller Sports Park is a regular feature in the AMA championship, and Jake Zemke used his experience on the Utah track to find a good set up for his bike and aim for his first Superpole qualifying tomorrow.?
Max Biaggi topped the sheets on his Aprillia in 1’49.820s, while Jake Zemke finished the first day of qualifying in a best time of 1’51.072s, closely followed by Leon Haslam in 1’51.389s.?
Jake Zemke, 1’51.072s:
” It has been an encouraging day. We have definitely made a lot of progress with the bike from where we started at. We kept on moving forward, but it is a tough series. Just when you think you’ve improved half of a second, the rest of the field does the same. We are definitely working in the right direction and have some good ideas for tomorrow. I am a lot more comfortable riding the bike this time, than I did in Monza. The team is working hard to give me the settings I am more familiar with. We still have some time to improve, but we are getting closer to where we should be.”
Leon Haslam, 1’51.389s:
” I had a problem with one of my bikes in the first Free Practice session. We are not sure what it is yet, but will work on sorting that out tonight. For some reason, we seem to struggle a little with the set up of the bike on this track. I have done a lot of in-and-out laps, and towards the end I was able to put in consistently fast laps. We are still 1.5s off the time we should be riding, but to be able to ride consistently fast lap times is a good thing on this track. I hope we can make a leap forward tomorrow in the second qualifying. ”
Johan Stigefelt, Team Manager:
“Jake is doing a good job here on the track he knows well. We have some issues with the suspension of the bikes, specially with Leon’s machine. He is far off from where he should be at the moment. We will be working on that overnight and prepare a better machine for tomorrow’s session. It is Leon’s first outing on this track and with this team, but even though, we should be able to progress to the front of the field. We will consider this day as a learning day and use the data we have collected now to further improve and do better tomorrow.?
Quiet start at Miller for Supersport team
The Supersport riders set out to complete their maiden laps at the Miller Motorsports Park in the first World Supersport event which runs today through Sunday on the 4.907 km long track in Utah.
Anthony West and Gianluca Vizziello opened their first laps in a quiet mode, but gradually picked up the pace and improved their lap times. West is still anticipating to refresh his competitiveness though, and was slightly less satisfied with the lap times he set in today’s sessions than his team mate Vizziello.
For the seventh round of the championship the team has attracted a new suspension specialist to tackle the specific issues that have plagued the Supersport team in their last outings. Vizziello seems to have found confidence with the arrival of the new suspension specialist and managed to improve his fastest time set in the early afternoon qualifying by nearly two-seconds in the Second Practice.
West will be able to further improve his time in the third free practice and first qualifying session tomorrow, and is hoping to make a step forward to the front of the field.
Anthony West, 1’55.012s:
” It was a tough session for me today. I am still not confident with the set up of my machine. We have made some improvements to the suspension and solved some of the issues we had with the front, but I am still not as competitive as I need to be. We need to find some important seconds in tomorrow’s session.”
Gianluca Vizziello, 1’57.287s:
” Today’s sessions went alright, We managed to find a set up that works on this track and from which we can move forward. We have an extra specialist in the team and extra time and effort he has been putting in is already showing off. We have been able to find good solutions for some of the issues we had and I am convinced we can improve another second in tomorrow’s qualifying.”
Johan Stigefelt, Team Manager:
” We have a new specialist, who we have worked with in the past, and can already see a clear progress in the development of the chassis. We still have some issues to solve, but we have been improving throughout the sessions today. We will continue the work and progress in tomorrow’s sessions and will hopefully be able to become faster and improve our lap times.”
