Biaggi’s Superbike Lap Record
Henny Ray Abrams | May 30, 2010
TOOELE, UTAH, MAY 30: Aprilia Alitalia’s Max Biaggi used the fastest ever lap by a World Superbike rider to top final qualifying in advance of this afternoon’s Superpole at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.The Italian wasn’t a factor until the end of the 45 minute session when he ran a pair of quick laps. The first fired him to third place behind Carlos Checa (Althea Racing Ducati) and Jakub Smrz (Team PATA B&G Racing Ducati) with just over four minutes remaining. The next lap, a 1:48.115, shot him to the top of the order. It also eclipsed the previous fast lap of 1:48.193 mins. run by Checa in 2008.Smrz was fast qualifier on Saturday, but couldn’t improve on his time until the very end of the session. It was then that he dropped from his Saturday best 1:48.517 to a 1:48.289 that moved him to second.BMW’s Troy Corser put his name in the mix by jumping to second behind Biaggi in the final minutes before Smrz snuck between them. Still, Corser ran a 1:48.318, good for third fastest.Checa made his mark by taking over second with less than 11 minutes to run, then went to the front of the field a lap later. His next lap of 1:48.358 was even better and good enough to slot him into the fourth fastest time.Teammate Shane Byrne moved up to fifth at the end of the session, with Ducati Xerox’s Michel Fabrizio, second early, dropping down the order to sixth.Yamaha Sterilgarda’s Cal Crutchlow was only .040 sec. behind in seventh with a little over a tenth on Suzuki Alstare’s Leon Haslam, the championship leader who wasn’t able to improve on his Saturday time.Aprilia Alitalia’s Leon Camier ended the session crashing into the dirt after clocking the ninth fastest time, with James Toseland (Sterilgarda Yamaha) also unable to improve on his Saturday best.Neither was Team Pedercini Kawasaki’s Roger Lee Hayden able to better his Saturday time, but by finishing 19th he made it into Superpole for the first time.Final Qualifying:1. Max Biaggi (Aprilia) 1:48.1152. Jakub Smrz (Ducati) 1:48.2893. Troy Corser (BMW) 1:48.3184. Carlos Checa (Ducati) 1:48.3585. Shane Byrne (Ducati) 1:48.5496. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) 1:48.5717. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) 1:48.6118. Leon Haslam (Suzuki) 1:48.7349. Leon Camier (Aprilia) 1:48.74110. James Toseland (Yamaha) 1:48.887Other:19. Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki) 1:50.80
Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor
Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.
