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Stiggy Racing Honda>> Competitive first day of Monza qualifying

May 08 2009

World Superbike Championship
Stiggy Racing Honda

Round 05 Monza
Friday, 8th May
QP1

The first of the three Italian rounds in the World Superbike Championship took off at the Monza Park circuit today. The famously fast track - dubbed the Temple of Speed because of its long straights, wide curves and fast chicanes that provide the perfect scene for slip-streaming battles and full throttle action - enjoyed a competitive first day of qualifying.

After dominating the first Free Practice session, Italian rider Michel Fabrizio shot to the top of the sheets once again in the Qualifying Practice, closely followed by Yamaha rider Tom Sykes in second, and Ducati team mate Noriyuki Haga in third.

Stiggy Racing Honda's Leon Haslam opened his first session on the fast track in a best time of 1'47.268s, and managed to take another second off in the Qualifying session. He remained 0.7s off the pace ran by Fabrizio, and finished the first day of qualifying in 12th position in a best time of 1'46.208s.

American Formula Extreme Champion Jake Zemke made his first appearance aboard the Stiggy Racing Honda in the Superbike series today, and focused on getting used to the behaviour of his new bike and the Pirelli tyres before setting out for a fast lap. Zemke opened things up in his second outing and managed to lower his time by almost 2 seconds in the qualifying session to a best of 1'47.751s, which currently puts him in 22nd position.

Leon Haslam, WSBK:
" We made some progress today. We have been persevering with a different front end this weekend and did some back-to-back testing, which has put us in a good direction. We should be able to improve in the next session, although we are not a million miles away. I am running good lap times, and managed to set my fastest time in the tenth lap I did on my race tyre. I am pretty happy with the progression we have been able to make so far. There's a few areas we want to improve on, we want to work on the suspension a bit more, but other then that I am comfortably looking forward to tomorrow's qualifying.

Jake Zemke, WSBK:
" I am satisfied with today's progress. We could have been better, but I am starting to feel comfortable on the bike and understand it, which is the main thing at the moment. We are working in that direction, and definitely got better in the last laps. I was actually a little upset with myself as I thought we had to qualify for Superpole today, but fortunately, we have another chance tomorrow. There's definitely more in store, so the lap times will have to come down tomorrow, and I will hopefully be able to qualify for a competitive position on the grid".

Johan Stigefelt, Teammanager:
" It's been a satisfying day for us. Jake is making his first appearance here with the team, and so far everything is been going well. It is not an easy track to start your first race, but it looks promising and I'm convinced he will improve tomorrow. Leon has been running a competitive pace here. The crew will make some further changes to his bike and test some different parts, but we are heading in the right direction and hopefully will bring both riders in a good position for the Superpole qualifying tomorrow".

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.