Both riders are happy with their progress on the all-new for 2001 GSX-R600 race bike and are pleased to be so competitive right from the start. 

Fujiwara continued to enjoy his time on the Supersports bike but a fallen rider hindered one of his quick laps and he settled for seventh fastest on the day. 

Both riders left the test confident that when they start racing here on March 11, they will be contesting for the podium positions. 

Katsuaki Fujiwara ­ 7th, 1:39.838 - "I'm very happy with these tests, despite my small crash yesterday. This morning we spent most of the time checking the bike I crashed, so I didn't go for any quick times. In the afternoon, I used a new engine and gearbox, but the gearbox was too long for this circuit, so I couldn't accelerate as hard as I wanted to. I was about to go for a fast lap towards the end of today, but a crash put a lot of gravel and dirt on the track, so I couldn't really go for it. The times are pretty close round the second to tenth place, so I'm not worried. It's going to be very close racing this year and I'm going to try my best to win." 

Karl Muggeridge ­ 9th, 1:40.148 - "Today was better for me and we certainly sorted out some of the problems I've been having. I'm happy to improve up to ninth, but unhappy to be one and a half seconds behind the leader today. I found that we had some problems with our tyres but we are working on it. That may be because of our bike, or maybe the bike and the track together. We'll sit down and look at all the info and then see which way to go. After our progress in the last tests, we had hoped to continue forwards, but sometimes you have to go back a little to go forward a lot. I think we'll be OK for the first race, but we'll have to do some work in the meantime."