TEAM-MATE Troy Corser is proving the biggest threat to Carl Fogarty's 100 per cent start to the World Superbike Championship campaign.

The championship today moved to Australia's Phillip Island for the second round of races with Fogarty riding high on the back of two first round wins in South Africa.

But fellow Ducati man Corser was marginally quicker in the first qualifying session, with Fogarty hot on his tail in second.

It was a repeat of the Ducati winter testing results at the track.

Castrol Honda rider Aaron Slight admitted: "We've not had a good first day. It's time to dig deep and get on the pace and ahead of the Ducatis tomorrow."

The spectacular opening session ended with the top 14 riders all breaking Slight's three-year-old lap record at the resurfaced 2.76-mile track near Melbourne. Slight's record stands at 1m 35.441s.

Fogarty is so confident with his rejuvenated Ducati bike that his only worry is over the choice of tyres for Sunday's race.

The heat of Australia has caused problems in the past, although Foggy took a first and third place from last year's corresponding races. He said: "We worked really hard in practice at Kyalami to make sure everything was set up right.

"We've got to do the same out here and make sure we get the right tyres.

"That's where it's going to be won and lost because, normally when it's hot, it affects the tyres.

"It's caused big problems for everyone here in the last couple of years so we've got to concentrate on getting that aspect of things right."

The track is particularly tough on the rear tyres as bikes accelerate hard while leant over for long periods of time.

Changes have been made, though, so the windy track could hold a few surprises.

Foggy explained: "It's a good track, a bit like Donington. It's very flowing and very open and it's been reshaped so that it's a lot smoother."

Fogarty is not expecting a repeat of his comfortable victory margins in Kyalami last month.

"I felt confident I could go out there and win the races but I thought I'd have to fight for it.

"To have won two races like that at this level is almost unheard of.

"It's always hard work racing out there because of the heat and the altitude.

"The bike felt great and it seemed to be working well although the tyres weren't fantastic. "But if you look at what I achieved then I haven't really got too many grounds for complaint.

"I'm not expecting it to be as easy this time as it was in South Africa.

"But if I can reproduce the type of results I achieved there then I think I'll win the championship," he added.

Friday's qualifying times: 1 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 1m 32.623s, 2 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 1m 32.953s, 3 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda)1m 33.614s, 4 Doriano Romboni, Italy (Ducati) 1m 33.669s, 5 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 1m 33.995s, 6 Peter Goddard, Australia (Aprilia) 1m 34.176s, 7 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 1m 34.401s, 8 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 1m 34.460s, 9 Steve Martin, Australia (Ducati) 1m 34.576s, 10 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan (Suzuki) 1m 34.596s.

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