WSS Phillip Island: Parkes tops day one at Phillip Island

Yamaha’s Broc Parkes set the fastest Supersport lap with an impressive 1m 35.2 in the final 30 minutes of the opening day. Parkes and team-mate Fabien Foret both had two 2008 bikes each at their disposal and continued to improve the set-up for the fast and flowing Phillip Island circuit.

Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider Andrew Pitt continued to reacquaint himself to the Supersport machine with a 1m 35.7 second lap. Pitt also back to back tested the PI electronics with the Honda system after the team implemented improvements to the PI system following last month Qatar test.

Jonathan Rea shocked the rest of the paddock with his immediate pace onboard the Supersport machine after three years in BSB. Rea lapped within 0.1 seconds of his team mate Pitt despite riding having to learn the bike, track and tyres.

Fourth place went to Australian Josh Brookes onboard the Stiggy Motorsport Honda with Triumphs Garry McCoy fifth. McCoy benefited from an extra seven bhp compared with his first test on the bike in Qatar after legendary tuner Francpo Farne worked his magic on the 675cc three cylinder motor.

Britons Chris Walker had a positive first day with a best lap of 1m 36.6 matching the lap time of factory Yamaha man Fabien Foret and ahead of his Kawasaki team-mate Katsuaki Fujiwara and Honda’s Robin Harms.

 

Broc Parkes – 1m 35.2
Andrew Pitt – 1m 35.7
Jonathan Rea – 1m 35.8
Josh Brookes – 1m 36.3
Garry McCoy – 1m 36.4
Chris Walker – 1m 36.6
Fabien Foret – 1m 36.6
Katsuaki Fujiwara – 1m 36.9
Robin Harms – 1m37.7