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2001 Macau Grand Prix Results Thursday - Free Practice & Results
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Roger lined the Rêve Red Bull Ducati up in 2nd position on the grid beside the new unofficial lap record holder John McGuiness, on his Factory Honda Britain Fireblade. As the lights turned green there was the frantic dash up to the first tight corner at Lisboa. Roger's start was good considering the tall first gear and dry clutch of the Ducati Corsa and he arrived at Lisboa in second spot. At Lisboa an over-enthusiastic Vincent Haskovec touched the back of David Jefferies, but Roger managed to safely negotiate the melee. McGuiness had already taken a strong lead after two corners, but Roger hung in there, ignoring a couple of big slides as the Dunlop tyres warmed up. The pattern of the race was set at the end of the second lap with McGuiness opening the gap on Roger by around a second a lap for the first few laps whilst Roger increased his lead over Jefferies by 2 seconds a lap.
At half distance the gap from McGuiness to Roger had increased to around ten seconds as McGuiness knocked 1.2 seconds off the lap record. Roger was lapping consistently on a pace two seconds faster than he had ever lapped the Macau Guia circuit as they approached the first of the back-markers. Roger cut through them better than McGuiness and made some valuable time entering the last few laps, cutting the deficit to around 5 seconds from the Factory Honda Britain bike. As the race drew to a close Roger tried to exert as much pressure as he could by chipping away at McGuiness's lead, who responded and upped the pace a little more - finally crossing the line 5.1 seconds ahead of Roger. They both entertained the crowd by wheelying over the finish line in style. Jeffries finishing third 49 seconds behind Roger.
After showering each other in Champagne on the podium, at the post race press conference John McGuiness applauded his rival, and said that he had to get his head down more towards the end of the race as he knew Roger was closing in. Roger continued "I want to thank Ben Atkins for providing the Reve Red Bull Ducati and also technician Chris Anderson for all his work this week. The bike ran perfectly throughout the race and I put in times that would have been fast enough to win any previous Macau GP".
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Position |
Rider |
Bike |
Best |
Time |
Gap (Secs) |
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1 |
John McGuinness |
Honda Britain Fireblade |
2:29.173 |
37:54.656 |
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2 |
Roger Bennett |
Reve Red Bull Ducati |
2:30.541 |
37:59.810 |
5.154 |
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3 |
David Jefferies |
Yamaha - V&M Racing R71 |
2.32.547 |
38:43.667 |
49.011 |
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4 |
Markus Barth |
Team Suzuki Schafer GSXR1000 |
2.34.077 |
38:57.429 |
1:02.773 |
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5 |
Thomas Hinterreiter |
Suzuki - Rubatto Racing GSXR1000 |
2.34.461 |
39:01.881 |
1:07.225 |
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6 |
Gus Scott |
Honda Britain Fireblade |
2:34.156 |
39:02.152 |
1.07.496 |
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Friday morning dawned clear and warm, the first time the sun has been out this week. Track temperatures were up, and led to some fast times from the leading runners. The first session ran from 07.30 to 08.10, and Roger put the Reve Red Bull Ducati on provisional pole position before stopping to discuss further changes with Reve technician Chris Anderson. TT specialist John McGuinness finished fastest, with Roger still second quickest but confident of improving further with more laps.
For the second and final qualifying, 09.30 to 10.10am, the following changes were made to the Ducati; Gearing, rear spring, front fork springs, and clutch plates. Roger did three laps - just one flying lap, and improved his time by 1.6s, leaving him just 0.6s behind McGuinness. It was clear the changes had improved the Ducati, and two further single laps to try different damping settings followed before pitting to fit a new pair of Dunlop slicks. Roger rejoined for the last 15 mins of qualifying, and on his first flying lap, while still bedding in the tyres, improved by a further 0.4s. However, with 39 bikes on track, some of whom were 38 seconds a lap off the pace, it was both difficult to get a clear lap, and dangerous to commit to passing these riders. Roger had four consecutive laps spoiled by backmarkers as he failed to improve his time, leaving him second on the grid. McGuinness meanwhile snatched a clear lap, his very last of the session, and put in the fastest ever lap of the Guia circuit to secure pole position. Analysing the data from the session, the bike had been pulling 288kph (180mph) on the fastest part of the circuit.
At the post qualifying press conference, the leading trio of Roger, Dave Jefferies and John McGuinness were indulging in some banter as to who would top the podium after Saturdays race. The top six was rounded out by World Endurance Champion Brian Morrison, WSB rider Markus Barth, and Iain Duffus.
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Thursday - Free Practice & Results
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A passing typhoon, caused an upset with weather in Macau. Bringing both strong winds and rain throughout Wednesday evening. Although the rain had stopped by the beginning of the 7.30 am practice session, the track was wet and slippery in places. Roger waited for the track to become drier before completing two flying laps by the close of the one hour session. The second lap put him in 2nd place at that time, before finishing 6th at the end of the session.
The Reve Red Bull Ducati clocked the fastest speed through the start-finish speed trap. Said Roger "The bike was fast and easy to ride. Even in two laps we learned enough to make some adjustments which will make it faster still in tomorrow's qualifying". Reve Red Bull technician, Chris Anderson, analysed the data logging and changed the gearing as the bike was almost revving out in top gear at 180 miles per hour. Other refinements included rear suspension, steering geometry and brake pad compound changes.
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Thursday Free Practice Results |
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Position |
Rider |
Bike |
Fastest Time |
Laps Completed |
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1 |
John McGuinness |
Honda |
2:35.619 |
14 laps |
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2 |
Dave Jefferies |
Yamaha |
2:37.232 |
7 |
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3 |
Gus Scott |
Honda |
2:41.617 |
14 |
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4 |
Markus Barth |
Suzuki |
2:41.812 |
10 |
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5 |
Frank Heidger |
Yamaha |
2:42.178 |
13 |
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6 |
Roger Bennett |
Ducati |
2:42.312 |
4 |
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