Stiggy – the proverbial one legged man in an ass kicking contest, Superpole Review | World SBK
- From: TRS Media | Published: April 25th, 2009 - 1:00 pm
It was a dramatic start to the race weekend for the Stiggy Racing Honda Team because a nasty crash on Friday took John Hopkins out of contention, but Leon Haslam gave the Superbike squad something to shout about and secured the first front row start for the team this season.?
After a strong performance in the Superpole qualifying, Haslam put his bike firmly on the third place on the grid, well ahead of the other Honda’s in the field.?
Haslam opted to stay on race tires for the first shoot-out, and save his qualifiers for the remaining two sessions. He set a fast lap in the early minutes of SP1, which put him in a save position for the second shoot-out. Out on his first qualifiers he improved his time to 1’38.23s, with one more session and qualifying tire to go.?
He went out first for the final qualifying, and set the target time at 1’38.072s. Only Haga and Spies managed to improve this time, and will start from second and pole position respectively.
His front row start gives Haslam a good position to challenge in the race, and with the pace he has shown throughout the qualifying sessions, he should be able to push for a good result in tomorrow’s Superbike races.?
Leon Haslam, P3, SP3-1′.38.072s:
“It is my first front row start this season. I feel very comfortable with the improvements we made to the race set-up by the end of the free practice session. We managed to get through the first Superpole qualifying on a race tire, and got through the second one using just one of the qualifiers, which put me in a good position for the last session. I made a few mistakes, and we do have some small things to work on tomorrow in the warm-up, but I am certainly happy with the progression we have made so far.”
Johan Stigefelt, Team Manager:
“It has been great day for Leon and the team, we set our target on improving our qualifying and secured a front row start.
We know that we have the right race pace, but to qualify on the front row is just a perfect start for the race for us. This afternoon in the Free Practice the crew improved Leon’s settings and that turned out to work very well for him. He has been able to ride consistently fast lap times. I am really happy for the theam. Everyone has just worked so hard over the last couple of weeks, and it is good to see the results paying off.?
What happened to John yesterday was just disappointing. He has been very unfortunate here in Assen, but we will support him during his recovery, and when he comes back we will have his bike ready for him again.
-release from Stiggy Honda
