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Kiwi comeback king Aaron Slight is hot on the pace at this weekend\'s penultimate round of the World Superbike Champs in Germany.
After the first of two qualifying sessions the Masterton-born 34-year-old is fourth fastest, on virtually the same lap time as his Castrol Honda teammate Colin Edwards who leads the title chase overall.
\"We tried quite a few different settings and towards the end of the hour session I really got going,\" said Slight, who is out of title contention are undergoing brain surgery earlier this year.
\"My fastest lap came in the final minute of the session - I\'m sure I can go faster tomorrow morning.\"
\"I like the circuit and the bike is working well here.\"
\"I think the race will be hard on tyres but that\'ll be the same for every rider. We gambled on a few settings today and it\'s paid off,\" said the veteran pro racer.
\"A lot of this season, since I came back from surgery, has been like a test session, purely because we\'ve had no time to test.\"
\"Today we came across some new chassis settings and it worked really well.\"
\"I\'ve also figured out that I\'m too fast for the machine! It sounds mad but I\'m trying too hard and trying to be fast when I need to control myself a little more in the middle of a corner.\"
With the sound of the one-litre V twins booming around the Oschersleben circuit near Magdeburg south-west of Berlin, the old eastern bloc knows the superbike circus has come to town.
Slight\'s SP1 Castrol Honda and that of teammate Edwards are stiff competition for the favoured Ducati of Australian Troy Bayliss, one of the newcomer finds of the season.
Aprilia rider and former world champion Troy Corser, also from Australia, was the only other racer who managed to join this trio to form a provisional front row of the grid for Sunday\'s two races.
Tomorrow morning\'s second qualifying session will be followed by the flying lap Superpole contest to determine the top 16 grid positions.
German fans are scanning grey, overcast skies, hoping rain won\'t arrive to spoil the party.
Times, first qualifying session:
1 Troy Bayliss (Australia) Ducati 1 min 27.823 sec;
2 Troy Corser (Australia) Aprilia 1:28.012;
3 Colin Edwards (USA) Castrol Honda 1:28.658,
4 Aaron Slight (NZ) Castrol Honda 1:28.658,
5 Juan Borja (Spain) Ducati 1:28.901,
6 Akira Yanagawa (Japan) Kawasaki 1:28.953,
7 Peter Goddard (Australia) Kawasaki 1:29.065,
8 Pier-Francesco Chili (Italy) Suzuki 1:29.154,
9 Gregorio Lavilla (Spain) Kawasaki 1:29.218,
10 Robert Ulm (Austria) Ducati 1:29.254.
