World Supersport Final Qualifying

MacPherson on top again – at last!

So far this season we’ve heard little of the fiery Scot Iain MacPherson. His great form of the last two seasons seemed to have evaporated, but today in final qualifying for the Misano round of the World Supersport championship MacPherson and his Kawasaki ZX-6R emerged from obscurity. Just when it looked like another pole position for the Ten Kate Honda team, this time in the hands of the likeable Pere Riba, MacPherson nipped in to steal pole away from the Spaniard with only three minutes of qualifying left. “I’ve felt really comfortable all weekend,” said MacPherson, “I knew I could hook it all up for today. I’m looking forward to the race, this is one of my favourite tracks.” Riba admitted to a little complacency, “When I set my time of 1 minute 38.125 seconds I thought I had done enough for pole,” said Riba afterwards, “I relaxed a little too much and then saw MacPherson had stolen pole from under my nose.”

Jorge Teuchert, the reigning Supersport champion, was close behind on his Wilbers Suspension Yamaha in third. Suzuki Alstare man Katsuaki Fujiwara makes up the front row. The session was dotted with crashes, with Dean Thomas losing the front end on his Dienza Ducati and James Whitham doing the same as the session came to a close.

It was another disappointing time for BKM Honda rider Kevin Curtain, he beat himself up in a crash on Friday and he’s struggled to ride all weekend. But the gritty Australian isn’t a quitter and he’ll be squeezing his swollen left arm into his leathers to compete on Sunday in an attempt to salvage his championship assault. Paolo Casoli, who leads Curtain in the championship by only three points, qualified down in fifth.

With only half a second covering the top ten riders on the grid the race is sure to be a typical Supersport event, with lots of close fought action between a big group of riders, all of them with a good chance of a win. Many riders are complaining that the track surface is greasy and the combination of a difficult surface and the searing Adriatic heat is going to make race day one of tough choices for the tyre technicians. Several teams have found it impossible to select a tyre that will go race distance in the heat, so it could be an inspired tyre choice that wins the day. Or the race could go to the rider who can go fastest smoothly, someone able to save his tyres while putting in laps at track record pace.