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World Superbike Championship Series second Superbike races, while Chili was enjoying his 240th and 241 st. "Race two was really good, but in race two I had a little crash," Neukirchner said. "I had a real good start in the second and the conditions were fine. The engine cutout sensor was a problem in race one, and then the other riders braked a little earlier than usual and that caught me out, and we collided. But race two was a lot of fun." It was a tough, old day for a lot of riders, not least World Champion James Toseland, who took two sixths and had to work hard for them to boot. "I got two good starts, and we hung in there," Toseland said. "I was two-tenths off getting fifth in the aggregate, but considering everything that's happened this week, it's a solid start. The confidence is coming again. I needed some dry time and Regi§ Rack§ Up Ano1:her Regis Laconi, the 2004 season runner-up, left it a little late to take the Superpole win at Losail, going close to the best qualifying time of the weekend despite the on-off-on nature of the entire comest. On a weekend plagued by constantly altering wet weather/dry weather conditions, the Superpole contest was run under "wet" regulations, even with a largely dry track surface evident underfoot at the start. Most thought this a cop out from the powers that be, but they were made to eat soggy humble pie when the rains returned midsession. Had it started under normal Superpole rules, this would have halted the flying laps set by each of the top 16 riders and elicited another SO-minute wet Superpole in any case. The wet decision was firmly vindicated with just over 20 minutes of the 50-minute session remaining. and thus each rider was given a limited number of laps in which to com- plete his personal best. With the pit-lane monitor screens announcing that each rider was allowed only 12 pit-lane exits, confusion reigned, and it brought a full explanation of how wet Superpole works. Each rider is allowed only 12 crosses of the finish line, on the circuit itself, but "laps" which return him to the pits do no count as laps - unless the riders have gone straight out, looked at the track conditions and failed to cross the finish line, coming back into the pits directly. Under these circum- I can only get that in the races. Two sixths from 13th place is okay. As far as the championship goes, I'm joint fifth, which is not what I wanted, but at least it's solid. Towards the end of the race, I was lapping as qUick as the leaders. After Sunday's crash, I needed some dry time, and I just didn't get it. We haven't been able to try everything we wanted, and that made the whole weekend difficult for me. I'm disap- laps of Superpole, but no one went out for 30 minutes in the middle because it was wet," Laconi said. "I went out at the start, but I knew I could do better. We changed both the front and the rear, and I pushed very hard on the final lap; to do a 2:0 I.S in these conditions is really good. For the race, I am pleased with the setup and with the duration of my tire. We have been working really hard to get the best feeling all weekend, and now it is working okay. Hopefully, it will be dry tomorrow for the race, because it's going to be a really tough battle. The other guys will make life difficult for us, but for sure that's good for the championship." Corser was second by a margin of .048 of a second, with the front row completed by Yamaha Motor France IPONE runner Sebastien Gimbert and another full-time World Superbike rookie, Yukio Kagayama - Corser's partner in the Suzuki squad. The ex-GPo ex-British Superbike Series Japanese rider had been in front of Chris Vermeulen's Honda as the young Aussie tried to go inside on the last corner on one of his fast laps and he slid off instead, his bike leaving some evidence of fluid on the track surface. Both Corser and Kagayama had to avoid this, and with Corser way onto the Astroturf it was yet another opportuni- laconi _uNCI the first pole ,..it*I of the year. started (rom row (our. he stays out instead of coming in after a single "flyer," each subsequent cross over the line counts as another single lap but again, not the one he uses to return to pit lane. So, a rider will have a maximum of six ideal chances to set a fast There was evidence (albeit one-sided) of some ungentlemanly conduct in Superpole, with the ex-GP fraternity Oose Luis Cardoso, Norick Abe and Fonsi Nieto) not moving off the racing line as Troy Corser tried to set faster laps. He complained long and loud and was himself caught on camera doing the gentlemanly thing and moving out of the way of Laconi, on the very lap that Laconi used to beat him to the Superpole win on. With the peculiar Losail track surface drying out surprisingly quickly again, there was a final 20-minute window of opportunity for all comers. As the racing line reappeared fully, Laconi and Co. took to the track once more, with the factory Ducati rider making the best of it and taking his seventh career pole position with a 2:01.593. "It was dry for the first few minutes and for the last few 26 MARCH 9, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS came but recovered something like his consistent best on every day - testing or qualifying. On a drying track, he took sixth place, one up on the second Yamaha Motor ltalia rider Noriyuki Haga, who was not too happy quite yet. Despite his crash in the final Superpole segment, Vermeulen recovered both composure and lap time well enough to earn a second-row start, with the eighth best time on his Winston Ten Kate Honda. Wildcard Spaniard Ivan Silva again used his last exit of pit lane to secure ninth place on his La Glisse Yamaha, ahead of new Klaffi Honda runner PierFrancesco Chili. The top Kawasaki runner was, as was the case for most of qualifying, Chris Walker, who had to sit out the final possible lap after a minor machine glitch on his PSG-I Kawasaki prevented him from setting a fast final lap. He was nonetheBussei, who himself had something to crow about - a position better than the 2004 champ. The man himself, bruising up nicely after a testing crash, was James Toseland, who spent his Superpole and final qualifying sessions continually exiting and entering the pit lane, slipped down the order to finish Superpole only 13th. Thus, his promising start to the proceedings came to little and he Considering the usual way of things in wet Superpole, the rider will exit pit lane and build up speed to cross the finish line - counting one lap. He will then make a fast lap to set his Superpole time - crossing the line for lap two. After that, his lap back into the pit lane is not counted in his total of 12. If that does not count for a time. After some trying times in testing, Andrew Pitt, who also had an occasionally troubled final qualifying session, secured the best spot on row two, riding his Yamaha Motor ltalia RI to within almost a second of Laconi's best. Oil on the track, which halted the wet final morning session, was denied to have come from Pitt's bike, but with the track and pit lane needing cleaned, there was an oil spill to blame for the long halt to the session. Two Yamaha riders followed Pitt on the final grid placing. Cardoso (DFX Extreme Sterilgarda Yamaha) was one of the riders temporarily demoted below his previous qualifying position simply by not putting in a fast lap before the rains less one place up on Kawasaki Bertocchi runner Giovanni stances, that pit exit counts (or one lap. lap - six out laps and six flying laps, with six noncounting return laps. Complicated, but a system designed to give maximum chance to each rider and yet prevent abuses of the out lap pOinted, but I know I could have been out for a couple of rounds with last week's crash, so I'll take these results any day." In race two, he could not quite repass Pier-Francesco Chili for fifth place and had his work cut out to fend off Superbike new boy Yamaha Motor France IPONE's Norick Abe and outstanding class debutant Neukirchner, who was to finish an eventual eighth after being fifth for most of the race. ty lost for the Aussie to add to his record score of 30 poles in World Superbike - both pre-and post-Superpole eras. "Conditions out there were very difficult in Superpole, and it was a bit of a lottery deciding when to go out," Corser said. "Superpole started dryish, became wetter, then dryish again. Towards the end, I thought I'd go for it, so I went out. That seemed to signal the start of everybody going out, and the last fIVe or six minutes were frantic. On my final lap, I knew I had been slow in the first two splits, but I made up some time in the third split and that gave me a good lap time. It wasn't a perfect lap by any means because I had to run a bit wide on the last turn when I saw some marks on the track in front of me. I didn't know if it was oil or fuel or what, but I gave the marks a wider berth, and that cost me even more time. Nevertheless, I was quickest - until Regis [Laconi] came along. I knew he was on a flyer and I didn't want to get in his way, so I moved over. I could tell it was a fast lap and it was no surprise when he went on pole. I'm feeling very comfortable on the bike, and my fast time was done on race rubber, so I know what I can do." The younger K1affi Honda runner Max Neukirchner, astonishing in a fifth spot after regulation qualifying (now with a slightly higher spec engine than he had in testing) slipped to 14th but scalped the outrageously coiffured Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) in any case. Marco Borciani (DFX Extreme Sterilgarda Yamaha) rounded out the top 16. As expected, competition was tough for Superpole places from the outset, and with the first day providing the last 16, thanks to the wet second and final regulation qualifying session, there were some supposed Superpole movers and steering head shakers missing in action. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati SC Caracchi) and Karl Muggeridge (Winston Ten Kate Honda) were two who did not make the Superpole cut after the final regulation qualifying session proved to be wet, and necessarily slow laps left them stranded just outside the top 16, unable to improve on their first day times or positions. Fonsi Nieto (Ducati SC Caracchi) stayed 19th fastest thanks to his day one time, and for the same reason Steve Martin (Petronas FP-I) was 20th and filled the last space on row fIVe. Local rider Talal AI Nuami (La Glisse Yamaha) failed to qualify for his home race but was allowed to start, his miss off the 107-percent qualifying maximum conveniently forgotten. He was 1.8 seconds off the cut, and 10 seconds from the fastest riders, which mean they should catch him on lap 12, hopefully with no repercussions.