Joy and pain for Team Caracchi NCR.

Team Caracchi NCR Nortel Networks rider Regis Laconi scooped the first pole position of his world championship career today [Saturday] at Sugo, Japan.

The Frenchman was delighted with his time, a 1m 30.064s, which was two hundredths up on Pier Francesco Chili, who was second quickest in the Superpole.

"Everything ran perfectly," said Laconi, "and the team gave me a perfectly set-up bike as well as tyres, which worked very well. When I crossed the finish line I saw on the cockpit the lap-time that I recorded and I punched my hand into the air, because I felt immediately that it would be tough for my rivals to better.

"Chili has been very fast, but not fast enough, and Hodgson rode a bad Superpole lap. Of course the race will be tomorrow, but for the moment I'm very happy. For the race Hodgson will be for sure a hard challenger, as well as Chili and the Suzuki's riders, but for the moment we should enjoy this moment, it's not easy for a private team. Usually I love tracks with fast corners, but from today on I love Sugo too!"

While Laconi celebrated though team-mate David Garcia was in the wars. He started the final qualifying session a bit nervous, due to all the problems he had had yesterday, then as he started to push, he crashed fracturing and dislocating his thumb.

Garcia explained: "My God, what an unbelievable day! Yesterday I didn't get time to practice, so this morning I started a bit nervous. I went into the pits several times to adjust the bike and then about 20 minutes to the end of the session I started to push.

"At the moment of my crash my split time was the eleventh fastest, and it was just the second lap that I was pushing, but I put my front wheel on the grass and, when I rejoined the asphalt the bike threw me off.

"I was asking the marshals to help me take my helmet off, because I wasn't able to it myself due to the pain in my hands, but they didn't understand me and that I wasn't able to breathe. It was a terrible moment. When I go back to Europe I will have an operation on my hand, and I'm confident I'll be able to race at Monza [on May 18]."