Cabin Honda rider
Makoto Tamada continued to embarrass the rest of the World Superbike regulars as he easily took Saturday's Superpole award ahead of Hitoyasu Izutsu and
Troy Corser.
Japan's Makoto Tamada continued his crushing form at Sugo in Saturday's Superpole competition as he took his Cabin Honda SP around the highly technical 2.31-mile Sugo circuit in a time of 1 minute 28.797 seconds giving him a clear half a second advantage over factory Kawasaki rider Hitoyasu Izutsu who won both races at the Japanese track in 2000.
Tamada has yet to be headed in a single practice or qualifying session this weekend as Japan's wildcard riders used their immense circuit knowledge to claim six places in Superpole, much to the displeasure of several factory World Superbike regulars, including
Troy Bayliss and
Ruben Xaus who both missed the cut for Saturday's one lap showdown.
Tamada's advantage at the head of the field was a mere half a second (!), compared to the one-second cushion he held after final practice with Izutsu's 1 minute 29.203-seconds the fastest anyone other than Tamada has lapped the circuit all weekend.
Troy Corser was once again the best of the non-Japanese riders in third spot on the Aprilia but his Superpole effort (1min 29.203secs) was a full seven tenths slower than Tamada who looks set to walk away with Sunday's two races unless one of the WSBK regulars really has a moment of inspiration.
Ben Bostrom restored a little pride to the factory Ducati outfit by improving from 14th in final practice to fourth in Superpole, his 1 minute 29.510 seconds over half a second quicker than he managed in practice while in fifth spot was the next wildcard rider, Shinichi Ito in the second of the two Cabin Honda's.
Neil Hodgson was a superb sixth on the GSE Racing Ducati with the Englishman clipping a further half a second off his morning time, itself an improvement over Friday and the current British Superbike Champion could be set to launch a surprise attack on the podium at the track where the team felt they would be up against it more than any other.
