Round 4 , Monza (Italia), Saturday 7th May 2005, Final Qualifying
Circuit: 5,793km., Weather: Dry, sunny 25 C

TROY GETS THE BIRD!

Troy was a lucky man this afternoon at Monza during Superpole. On his out lap, a
bird hit his bike and then the brake lever and sent blood and feathers all over
Troy’s right arm and shoulder. Part of the bird got stuck between Troy’s brake
lever and cable, so Troy had to flick it out and then check for any damage
before getting up to speed for his Superpole flying lap. Troy then blasted his
way round the 5.793 kilometre course, but the smallest of errors cost him
another Superpole win. Instead it was his team mate Yukio Kagayama who took the
honours - albeit by just seven thousandths of a second! Third quickest was Regis
Laconi (Ducati) with Karl Muggeridge (Honda) fourth.

TROY - 2nd, 1:47.439

That was a lucky escape for me because the bird could’ve caused some damage or
got stuck in one of the air intakes. In the end, it was just a bloody mess! I
could see the bird’s head stuck between the brake lever and cable, so I had to
pull it out before I could work the brakes properly. On the Superpole lap, I ran
wide exiting one of the chicanes and that was it. I thought Muggas was going to
beat me, but he made a mistake and that let Yukio in with a chance. I had helped
him a bit in qualifying and he made the most of it in Superpole, but I won’t be
helping him tomorrow! I don’t think anybody is going to pull away in the two
races and maybe four or five of us will be battling it out at the end. It’s
going to be a great show for the fans, but a bit of a difficult time for us for
sure.  The Alstare Suzuki has been working pretty well all weekend and the only
thing we may do tomorrow morning is alter the mapping a bit to see if improves
the bike’s performance. I feel that I am about five ks down on Yukio at the
moment and, although it’s not a big problem, I would like to be on par if
possible. This track is all about the engine and the chassis is not so important
here. Good grunt and acceleration is what you want here and if you have that,
you can chase a podium or two. I aim to leave here with a win or at least two
podiums.

Final qualifying:

 1 Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1.47.439
 2 CORSER (AUS-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1.47.446
 3 Laconi (F-Ducati)       1.47.885
 4 Muggeridge (AUS-Honda)  1.48.054
 5 Vermeulen (AUS-Honda)   1.48.128
 6 Pitt (AUS-Yamaha)       1.48.580
 7 Walker (GB-Kawasaki)    1.48.613
 8 Toseland (GB-Ducati)    1.48.695
 9 Chili (I-Honda)         1.48.908
10 Bussei (I-Kawasaki)     1.49.245

TROY CORSER WEBSITE - http://www.troycorser.com