DEFENDING champion Carl Fogarty was fourth fastest with behind Troy Corser in the first opening qualifying session for round one of the World Superbike championship at Kyalami in South Africa.

Corser and Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight battled throughout the one-hour affair yesterday and in the end the pair were separated by one hundredth of a second.

But Blackburn ace Fogarty was confident he would be able to improve his performance.

"Today it is possible to improve my time but what counts here is to get the bike ready for superpole," he said.

Meanwhile, Fogarty is backing former Ducati team-mate Neil Hodgson to win the British Superbike Championship this season.

The Burnley-based rider will race for INS Ducati in the championship in the hope of reviving his career after a couple of miserable seasons in the World Superbike Series.

"Obviously Neil lost his ride in World Superbikes because of his results and I think he'd be the first to admit that," said Fogarty.

"Now he's back in Britain he's working for a very big team and the only way back for him is to win the British Championship. "I think he'll do it as well.

"His team mate Troy Bayliss will run him close but I think Ducati will win the championship for the first time in a long time.

"Even if he does win there's no guarantees he'll get back into World Superbikes.

"But the talk is he could come back in with the team he's with now because they're on about entering it next year."

The British Superbike series is generally acknowledged as the toughest domestic series outside the World Superbikes and has always attracted the best of British riders.

And Sean Emmett and John Reynolds, who will ride for the Reve32

Red Bull Team to complete a four-pronged Ducati attack, are sure to push Hodgson and Bayliss close.

Friday qualifying times: 1 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 1m 43.255s, 2 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 1m 43.263s, 3 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Suzuki) 1m 43.330s, 4 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 1m 43.453s, 5 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 1m 43.835s, 6 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 1m 44.152s, 7 Robert Ulm, Austria (Kawasaki) 1m 44.385s, 8 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan (Suzuki) 1m 44.446s, 9 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 1m 44.589s, 10 Vittoriano Guareschi, Italy (Yamaha) 1m 45.709s.

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