Yamaha rider Cal Crutchlow took to the Miller circuit for the first time today for Friday’s free practice session. As with all Supersport riders with the exception of Sofuoglu this is Crutchlow’s first visit to the track. As usual the young British rider showed his natural flair for adapting quickly and took no time to get to into the top half of the time sheet in the first free session, laying down consistently fast laps. The second session was not so smooth, some issues meant changing to the second bike mid-way and Crutchlow struggled to find the pace again before the end.
Team-mate Fabien Foret was on top form, with 20 minutes to go to the end of the first session he posted the fastest time and went straight into the top slot with a 1’54.99 lap. The French rider has continued to get faster and faster over the season, proving last year’s crash at Brno is now well and truly behind him. As the first session drew to a close Foret was in fifth. The second free practice session saw more of the same confident pace as Foret continued to enjoy the circuit, laying down consistently fast laps to finish with a provisional third and a front row start.
Fabien Foret, Yamaha World Supersport Team, (3rd, 1’53.573)
“I’m actually really enjoying the track and my bike too. I’m very happy with how the bike is right now. I did quite a few laps and I think my race pace is pretty ok. Until now it’s all good, we’ll keep working and try to make the bike a bit better in a few places. Basically it’s a good first day.”
Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Supersport Team (6th, 1’53.956)
“It was a poor day for us to be honest, we’re normally a lot more up there than that but we had a few problems over the day, and in the last session especially so we’ll have to try and make sure we work on our areas where we’re not the best for tomorrow and hopefully we’ll be up there again.”
Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team
“both riders liked the track and settings wise we are quite pleased especially Fabien I have to say, he’s really happy with the set up and the track especially which is good because since Kyalami he needed a bit of a lift. It’s good he’s started with the same pace as South Africa. Cal had a little bit of a problem with one bike so needed to change bikes halfway through the session and he was still trying to find the right gearing so he was a little bit slower than the morning session. For tomorrow I think everything will be fine.”
2009 WSS United States - Salt Lake City Free Practice
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time
1 Joan Lascorz Kawasaki ESP 1’53.350
2 Eugene Laverty Honda GBR 1’53.549
3 Fabien Foret Yamaha FRA 1’53.573
4 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 1’53.637
5 Andrew Pitt Honda AUS 1’53.844
6 Cal Crutchlow Yamaha GBR 1’53.956
7 Mark Aitchison Honda AUS 1’54.333
8 Garry McCoy Triumph AUS 1’54.339
9 Miguel Praia Honda POR 1’54.475
10 Katsuaki Fujiwara Kawasaki JPN 1’54.598
11 Michele Pirro Yamaha ITA 1’54.599
12 Gianluca Nannelli Triumph ITA 1’54.614
13 Anthony West Honda AUS 1’55.012
14 Matthieu Lagrive Honda FRA 1’55.076
15 Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 1’55.287
16 Doni Tata Pradita Yamaha IDN 1’55.305
27 Yannick Guerra Yamaha ESP 1’58.093
28 Andrew Nelson Yamaha CAN 1’58.742
29 Oleg Pianykh Yamaha RUS 2’00.064
30 Melissa Paris Yamaha USA 2’00.018
31 Chip Yates Yamaha USA 2’03.336
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