DesmoSport Ducati press release:

Leading Australian Superbike Championship rookie Corey Turner was 13th on the combined time-sheets following three practice sessions at Sydney Motorsport Park on Friday.

In his second outing with DesmoSport Ducati and after displaying podium form at Morgan Park a fortnight ago, Turner and the Queensland team are currently working on a solution for Saturday’s qualifying sessions to climb further up the time-sheets.

Turner gradually improved this afternoon in Sydney by setting a 1m32.444s lap-time despite a tender finger injury and limited experience at the Eastern Creek-based circuit, confident of further improvements into the weekend.

“Today was a bit of a struggle, but in saying that we have a direction for tomorrow, which is the main thing,” Turner recalled. “We know what’s wrong and we know what to fix, so hopefully that’s a step forward for DesmoSport Ducati team and I.

“Not only do I have limited time around Sydney Motorsport Park where I am still learning the track, I’m trying to set-up the bike as well. On top of that, my finger is still give me grief from the crash I had at Morgan Park, but I’m looking forward for tomorrow.

“I just want to do more laps around here and hopefully my finger gets a bit better as I do more laps. We’ll take it as it comes and see where we end up in qualifying tomorrow, so we’re looking forward to those sessions.”

Three-time world champion and DesmoSport Ducati co-owner Troy Bayliss said it was part of the learning process in Turner’s second appearance aboard the factory-supported Panigale and is expecting his pace to increase come Saturday.

“The DesmoSport Ducati team tested here at Sydney Motorsport Park on the Tuesday after round five of the ASBK and, prior to that, Corey has only been here once before,” Bayliss explained. “Today wasn’t too bad, but we have a few little things we are working on and we are really confident that it will be a good step for tomorrow.

“We are basically just going to be working on bike set-up, so we are confident we have things under control and confident of a good weekend. Also, as Corey said, he has been having a few dramas with his finger since Morgan Park and there was a bit more damage to his finger than most people know about, but tomorrow should be an improvement.”

The opening 30-minute qualifying session for the premier Superbike class is scheduled for Saturday at 11:15am local time, with session two taking off from 3:00pm. Visit www.asbk.com.au for further information on the series.

Like DesmoSport Ducati on Facebook and Cube Performance Centre also has an exclusive DesmoSport Ducati section on its website, available to view at www.cubeperformancecentre.com.au/desmosport-ducati.