Carlos Checa will start the today’s races at Miller Motorsports Park from pole position, his fourth in five rounds so far this 2011 season.
The Spaniard who seems to be a master at the Utah circuit, admitted he was surprised of being up front considering that he was able to snatch the pole from a hard charging Jakub Smrz in such tricky weather conditions.
Here’s some rider quotes and couple of videos from after the Superpole session:Carlos Checa – 1st “Considering the conditions, this was the most difficult and most surprising pole of the season so far.
I really didn’t expect to do it on the wet seeing as we were struggling to make the top eight this morning.
I would have been happy with the front row for tomorrow but the pole is fantastic, and also unexpected! We had a good setting and I gained confidence in each session of the Superpole, improving as the grip began to pick up.
Maybe I could have pushed a little harder in certain sections of the track but I didn’t and it was an amazing surprise when I realised I’d made pole! Tomorrow we hope for drier conditions, but of course I will give it my all whatever the weather.
” Jakub Smrz – 2nd“This time I really thought that I won the Superpole, but Checa was the last truly great moment, so I congratulate him.
My result is great for all the members of my team that prepared a really great bike for the weather conditions I am very happy and and feel confident for tomorrow’s race.
I’ll say what the weather, but in any case it is very important to start from the front row.
”Marco Melandri -3rd“I actually didn’t expect to secure a front row place.
I’m really happy and I want to thank the team for their hard work over the weekend.
Yesterday didn’t go as well as I’d have hoped and this morning was also very difficult in the heavy rain.
We changed the set up and made great progress before this afternoon.
I don’t know what the weather will be like tomorrow and a lot depends on that.
I’m really pleased with today but tomorrow could be another story.
I hope luck will be on my side!”Eugene Laverty- 4th“I’m quite content with the day.
This morning’s qualifying in the wet conditions didn’t go so well, I was quite low down in the standings and I didn’t have the right feeling with the bike.
We worked hard all afternoon and continued to move in the right direction.
I’m confident that we’ll be up there fighting for the podium in both wet and dry race conditions.
I’m on the front row which is great and it’s important to get away in the long run into the first corner.
Hopefully I can catch Checa, but it would be nice to be on the podium.
”Sylvain Guintoli – 5th“I’m really pleased that after three months from Australia I’m in a high position, I rode my second best result in qualifying for tomorrow’s race and I’m very confident, regardless of the weather! I feel very good and the team has prepared me really great bike.
”Troy Corser – 6th“Overall I am happy with where we finished in Superpole.
This morning we were having some issues as track conditions were really bad.
We simply couldn’t get any grip, and that was reflected in the poor lap times.
So we made some changes and used some of Leon’s information.
He was finding a lot more grip than us and instantly the bike felt a lot better.
The weather conditions improved slightly and we were able to make it into Superpole 3, finally qualifying on the second row.
I am happy with the level of consistency from the bike and the tyres, we are able to run at a good pace and I am looking forward to the races tomorrow.
”Noriyuki Haga – 9th“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to reach the first two rows but unfortunately when the track goes drying everyone improve their time and I had to slow down a bit during my best lap losing the chance to be among the first 8 riders.
We managed to do a great job to optimize the bike on the wet setting, while if we’re gonna run on a dry track we still haven’t hit the best conditionhs.
In this case the important thing is to use the warm up trying to take a step forward and reaching for our best”.
Ayrton Badovini – 8th “I’m obviously pleased, although I’m never satisfied.
It is important that we have found something that works in the wet and dry and this shows the great strides made with bike.
Tomorrow the weather will be an important factor, but given our current technical position we are confident.
”Tom Sykes – 10th“A very wet day today but in the dry yesterday I was happy to be top four; that was great.
We had a good steady day of progress and ended up at the sharp end in the dry.
This morning we were safe in qualifying in the wet which was particularly good because we had some big problems with balance in the wet earlier this year.
This time around we were in the top ten throughout the day, which I thought was a good effort from everyone involved.
Tenth in Superpole was OK and ultimately we closed the gap on the other guys considerably, because we were four or five seconds off the leader at one stage.
We made improvements when it mattered.
I am disappointed to miss the second row, however.
I had thought I had been given the chequered flag at the end of the session and that I had to pull in.
As it turned out I hadn’t been flagged, it was just the flagman I saw at the side of the track.
I would have gone for a better lap and a second row start if I had seen the situation really clearly.
I would have went all or nothing on that final lap.
”Leon Haslam – 12th “We have been struggling with inconsistency in the electronic settings.
The setup we used this morning in heavy rain worked really well, and I felt confident with the bike.
Sadly come Superpole the conditions changed, the track began to dry and the settings we had simply weren’t working.
The bike became harder to ride and I ended up crashing trying to push my way into Superpole 3.
It’s quite frustrating because I felt really good this morning.
With regard to tomorrow, it will all depend on the weather conditions, as we definitely have the pace in the wet.
”Jonathan Rea – 13thI’m very disappointed with that qualifying result because we just couldn’t get the bike working today.
We were struggling with grip in the wet conditions, especially on corner entry and when the bike is leant over.
It was a combination of problems that included engine braking and clutch, and we weren’t able to get a handle on it.
However, we’re not going to bury our heads in the sand – we’ll go through everything in detail tonight and get a plan together for whatever the conditions are going to be tomorrow.
It’s not going to be easy from where we are on the grid but I’m hoping that we can fight for at least a top five placing.
If the conditions are mixed, then a whole lot of other factors will come into play, so we’ll see how things are in the morning and play it by ear.
Ruben Xaus – 14thYesterday was good, but today it rained and it seemed like Jonathan and I had the same problems.
The main issue for me is the first touch on the gas, when the bike loses grip and tries to come round.
It happens on all the left corners and, on the three right-handers, when there is less heat in the tyre, it’s quite dramatic the time we’re losing.
We have some work to do now and the team will work calmly and methodically tonight to find a solution, which needs to be quite big I think.
Michel Fabrizio – 15th“I am disappointed not to have got into Superpole 2, but I am not feeling fully-confident with my bike in the wet.
I am not happy to be on the fourth row of the grid because I will have a lot of work to do tomorrow if I am to have any chance of good results.
This is only my second time on this bike in the rain and I had to learn a lot in a very short time.
We need to improve the bike’s wet set-up and then I think my confidence in it will grow.
At the moment, my confidence in the wet is not so good and I just need more time in these kind of conditions.
Turn One is a long way from the start line, so I need to make good starts and be in the lead group.
If that doesn’t happen, it’s easy to lose a couple of seconds in the next section of the track and then it will be very hard to catch up.
So, I am hoping for good starts, but more than that, I am hoping that it will be dry tomorrow!”Joan Lascorz- 17th“I just do not feel comfortable on the bike and we had some problems with the bike moving around in the dry, but only depending on which tyres we used.
I missed out on Superpole by just a small margin but that will make it hard at the start of each race for me.
Right now it does not matter to me whether it is dry or wet on raceday.
I am not sure what will be possible once we get into the races and I have to be clever in the first few laps to make up some places.
”Mark Aitchison – 19th“Today was a very cold and wet day at Miller Park for our second qualifying session.
Obviously due to bad weather conditions our lap times did not improve, but I am happy as this was my first real experience of this bike in the wet.
During the day I found a consistent feeling with the bike and my team has worked hard to improve my confidence on the bike by working on some small set-up issues.
Tomorrow we must focus on improving the grip from the rear of the bike if we have wet conditions again, but I’m looking forward to our races tomorrow regardless of what the weather brings.
”Roberto Rolfo – 21st“I’m really disappointed with how qualifying practice went.
I was unable to improve on my best lap time of yesterday because of the rain.
In the afternoon free practice I worked very hard with my team to find a good set up for my Kawasaki on this wet track and we were able to improve the situation.
I’m confident ahead of tomorrow’s races even though I know it will be very difficult, starting from the sixth row, but I’m still positive and I’ll try my best to obtain a good result.
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