2005 World Superbike championship, round eight - Brands Hatch, GB
Qualifying practice - 5 August 2005

PROVISIONAL FRONT ROW FOR MUGGERIDGE AT BRANDS

Winston Ten Kate Honda's Karl Muggeridge set the fourth fastest time in this
afternoon's opening qualifying session for Sunday's eighth round World Superbike
championship races at Brands Hatch in the UK. The pace was set by championship
leader, Troy Corser, with Muggeridge's team-mate, Chris Vermeulen, seventh
fastest.

After morning rain prevented any meaningful set-up work in free practice for
the 4.2km undulating Brands Hatch circuit, this afternoon's qualifying session
was run in dry conditions with sunnier weather forecast for tomorrow and Sunday.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager:

"I think that this afternoon was pretty OK for our first dry track session and
I'm happy enough after day one. It's good to see Karl on the provisional front
row because, even though it's one of his favourite circuits, it's his first time
here on a superbike. Chris is quite near the pace of the front runners after his
time at the Suzuka 8-hour last weekend. But I think he adapted really quickly to
the change in tyres and what is really a very different machine. I'm sure we'll
find some more improvements to the bike tomorrow when, hopefully, the weather
will be a more consistent factor."

Karl Muggeridge - fourth fastest, 1m27.742s

"Yeah, this track is certainly pretty different on a superbike - it suddenly
looks a lot skinnier than I remember! I'm wheelying all the way down the back
straight at the moment and having to duck my head to get the front wheel down.
We started with a brand new setting here but, to be honest, we were quite a long
way away. I still need to be more confident in the front going into corners and
to be able to open the gas on the way out over the bumps. But we know what we're
after so we just need to put it in the bike and use tomorrow to make those
improvements to get it in the right area."

Chris Vermeulen - seventh fastest, 1m28.056s

"I'm not too unhappy with seventh considering the big difference between the
bike and the tyres that I rode at the 8-hour last weekend. I expected to
struggle a bit more than I did actually and was really just aiming to qualify
for Superpole today. But the bike's feeling pretty good after the team made a
lot of positive changes after our test at Lausitzring. I ran into a bit of
traffic when I put the qualifier in so I wasn't able to go much faster. There's
some work to do tonight and tomorrow but I think we'll be able to get it up
there."

World Superbike, Brands Hatch - provisional qualifying times:

 1 Troy Corser AUS (Suzuki)                      1m27.123
 2 Regis Laconi FRA (Ducati)                     1:27.652
 3 Chris Walker GBR (Kawasaki)                   1:27.656
 4 Karl Muggeridge AUS (Winston Ten Kate Honda)  1:27.742
 5 Yukio Kagayama JPN (Suzuki)                   1:27.767
 6 Andrew Pitt AUS (Yamaha)                      1:28.023
 7 Chris Vermeulen AUS (Winston Ten Kate Honda)  1:28.056
 8 James Toseland GBR (Ducati)                   1:28.072
 9 Pierfrancesco Chili ITA (Honda)               1:28.205
10 Max Neukirchner GER (Honda)                   1:28.271