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Stiggy Honda>> Haslam Masters the Nurburgring on Wet Day of Qualifying

September 05 2009

Friday, September 4

Stiggy Racing Honda's Leon Haslam had never been to Nurburgring before, but found enough similarities with his favourite English track Cadwell Park, to place himself in seventh position in the first day of qualifying for the eleventh round of the championship at the German track. In cold and wet weather conditions the Superbike riders made their first appearance on track after their six-week summer break.

Englishman Leon Haslam parked himself firmly at the top of the sheets in the opening minutes of the afternoon's qualifying session and showed that he has mastered the track in just a short time. Heavy rain halted the session midway just after Jonathan Rea snatched the pole-position. Leon Haslam went out again in the last minutes of the session on a drying track in attempt to further sharpen his fastest time of 2'12.979s.

John Hopkins is another newcomer to the Nurburgring and was pushing hard to adapt to the German track in the two 60-mintes sessions. Technical issues and heavy rainfall limited his track time in the first day of qualifying, and the american closed his first sessions in a best time of 2'15.249s.

Leon Haslam - 2'12.979s:
“I am pretty happy with today's sessions. I went straight out of the box with some ideas to improve the set-up we used in the first session this morning and managed to set the fastest time. Johnny managed to improve my time before the rain came in and put me to second place. We tried a few things right at the end that might work. I am not sure where we ended up, but we are not that far off and I am pretty confident of further improvement tomorrow."

John Hopkins - 2'15.249s:
“It was just freezing conditions here today. We made a lot of changes from this morning when we encountered a few technical problems that kept us of the track for the first half hour of the session. It started to pour down halfway the second session and sat out the downpour. In the final minutes I went back out again after we made some changes to the suspension, but it was too late to push for a better lap time. I am positive we can improve tomorrow."

Johan Stigefelt - Team Manager:
"We have had a good first day if qualifying. Leon has been doing very well in the wet in his first outing on the track and is getting better and better every lap. His crew made some changes towards the end of the qualifying session that didn't work out as they had planned. But he had a good start here and I am confident he will improve more. John is taking it step for step and is not rushing into things at the moment. He also makes his first appearance at this track. I expect him to be up to speed as well tomorrow."
 
Results Superbike Qualifying Practice 1:
1. J.Rea, 2'11.278s
2. T.Sykes, 2'11.781s
3. T.Corser, 2'12.086s
7. Leon Haslam - Stiggy Racing Honda - 2'12.979s
21. John Hopkins - Stiggy Racing Honda - 2'15.249s

Stiggy Honda is sponsored by Hotbodies Racing and uses our windscreens on all of their bikes. Hotbodies Racing specializes in manufacturing high-performance parts for high-performance sportbikes, and is the North American distribution of KR Tuned performance parts. Hotbodies Racing is the market leader in Undertails, Huggers, Windscreens, Flush-Mount Signals, Megaphone Exhausts and full-race Bodywork. Hotbodies Racing supports the sport with sponsorship around the world and encourages dealer and distributor inquiries. For more information visit: www.HOTBODIESRACING.com.