1st Qualifying, Friday 25th September 2009

Weather: sunny Track: dry

 First Practice session got cancelled

Today’s first practice session at Imola was abandoned after less than two laps due to the very slippery nature of the track and so Karl and the rest of the WSBK riders all lost one hour of valuable track time.

A WTCC race had taken place at the circuit the week before and the spillage of a lot of diesel fuel was blamed as the possible cause of the slipperyness. It took the circuit staff many hours to clean the track and so Karl had to go out at 17.45 for their only practice session of the day.

In addition to the track problems, Team Suzuki Alstare Brux were trying out Ohlins suspension for the first time and so the lost one hour was even more deeply felt. Nonetheless Karl got to grips with the new system and reported back very favourably.

Karl - 15th, 1:51.527

It’s not so good for me to lose one hour when I am still learning the bike and now also learning a new suspension system. That’s a lot to learn in one day and so I feel at a disadvantage compared to the other riders. Also, I didn’t test here when the teams came in July and so I had to relearn the track because it has changed since I raced here in 2006. But things went pretty good today and I am satisfied with the progress we made in such a short time and I am looking forward to two sessions tomorrow and understanding the bike better.

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2nd Qualifying & Superpole, Saturday 26th September 2009

Weather: sunny Track: dry

 Dissapointing Superpole Session for Muggas

Team Suzuki Alstare Brux rider Yukio Kagayama suffered a problem with his number one bike just before Superpole qualifying and was forced to use his back-up bike which had a different set-up. Because of this, he couldn’t push as hard as he wanted in Superpole 1 and so was unable to get into Superpole 2.

The morning qualifying session had gone very positively for the Japanese rider and he was looking forward to making further improvements on his GSX-R1000 K9 in the free practice before Superpole. Right towards the end of the session, his rear end lost grip and he was forced into the gravel trap. He hit the tyre wall and the engine cut out. Yukio tried to restart the bike, but it wouldn’t fire up, so he had to run back to the pits and get his number two bike ready for Superpole. His team mate Karl was also unable to proceed into Superpole 2 and was very disappointed as things had been going well up to that point. Karl is one of the few riders who didn’t test here back in July and yesterday’s loss of track time meant that he was still getting to know the bike, the new suspension system whilst learning the new layout of the circuit at the same time.Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) sneaked Superpole 3 victory right at the end of the session. Ben Spies (Yamaha) had laid down what seemed like an unbeatable time of 1:47.778, but in the closing minutes Fabrizio blasted that into the weeds and just managed to beat Spies. Third went to Jonathan Rea (Honda), with Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) fourth.

Karl - 20th, 1:50.414

I am very disappointed because today things had definitely started to turn around and we were progressing very well. We have improved the bike a bit since yesterday, but have still got the same family of problems, so more work is required. For me, turns one and two are still very greasy and I crashed there when the bike suddenly shook its head and I was off. No damage to me at all, but I am sorry for the extra work I have given the mechanics. I’ll see what I can do to repay them in the races tomorrow.

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Race Results

Weather: sunny Track: dry

 Hard work for Suzuki Alstare Riders

Team Suzuki Alstare rider Karl Muggeridge worked his hardest in both 21-lap races in Imola, but left the Italian circuit with just five points to show for his efforts. Today was always going to be tough, because of Karl’s lowly grid positions, but the first race started very positively. Karl suffered grip problems in race one and a rear tyre chunking in race two and although he was very disappointed with his results, he is positive that further work with the new Ohlins suspension system will pay dividends. Ducati riders Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio took control of Imola (their home track) today, with Haga taking victory in race one, with Max Biaggi (Aprilia) second and Fabrizio third. Race two was won by Fabrizio, with Haga second and Aprilia new boy Marco Simoncelli third.

Karl - Race 1: 13th, Race 2: 14th

After the morning warm-up we changed the settings of the bike, but I soon began to get a lot of chatter and a pumping feeling from the rear. I was having to fight the bike, but I just kept going and brought it home as best I could. We made a radical change to the bike for race two and there was less chatter, but the grip was not so good. The first ten laps were OK, but when the grip level went down further, I began to lose time and I could not recover. Eight laps from the end, the rear tyre started chunking, so I had to ride steadily and just get the bike home. I am pretty disappointed today but, on a positive note, I am happy with the front end of the bike. I know that we have to do more work on the rear, but our suspension is very new to us, so it is understandable that we have to do a lot of work to make progress.

Points: 1 Haga 391, 2 Spies 388, 3 Fabrizio 330, 4 Rea 263, 5 Biaggi 257, 6 Haslam 219, 12 Yukio Kagayama (JPN-Suzuki Alstare) 104, 16 Max Neukirchner (GER-Suzuki Alstare) 75, 25 Karl Muggeridge (AUS-Suzuki Alstare) 13,

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