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Subtly improved
conditions allowed the majority of the top Superbike riders to
reduce their best lap times at Valencia, although Regis Laconi
(Ducati Fila) continued his good pre-season form to secure the top
placing once more. He slashed half a second off his opening day mark
of 1:36.538, leaving the track today with a 1:36.016 on his board.
With even better conditions and more urgency he is fully expected to
dip under the 1:35 barrier on the final day of the tests. Given the
rate of improvement for some of the top riders in the series, he may
be joined in that bracket by more than one of his peers.
Steve Martin made the biggest jump, second fastest on the day, with
a 1:36.260. The Australian has been fastest in a previous Valencia
test during December 2003 and with a top-flight customer 999RS he
could be challenging for top honours this season. James Toseland
(Ducati Fila) was third fastest, after his 70 lap long haul, and he
was joined in the top four of day two by Noriyuki Haga, who took his
Renegade Ducati 999RS to a best time of 1:36.676.
Troy Corser (Foggy Petronas FP-1) made suspension changes to suit
the Valencia circuit and jumped up today’s order to finish fifth on
the Thursday timesheets.
Leon Haslam (Renegade Ducati 999RS) suffered another fall to add to
his injurious day one experience, when he broke a finger on his left
hand and badly grazed his calf. He escaped further injury today, and
went sixth fastest after 43 laps.
Ten Kate Honda FireBlade rider Chris Vermeulen was sixth fastest,
with a Thursday time of 1:37.200 to his credit. Mauro Sanchini
continued the development of another 1000cc four-cylinder machine
new to SBK competition, as he went eighth fastest on his Bertocchi
Kawasaki ZX-10.
Pierfrancesco Chili (PSG-1 Ducati 999RS) suffered another crash to
add to his opening day spill, as he tried to eradicate weight
transfer problems during his relatively early stage of acquaintance
with his 2004 Ducati. He was ninth fastest man on the day, with
Chris Walker (Foggy Petronas FP-1) tenth. NCR Ducati rider Garry
McCoy was 12th fastest on day two.
In World Supersport Karl Muggeridge (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR),
continued to be fastest rider on show, although he only matched but
did not improve his first day time of 1:37.665. Sebastien
Charpentier (Klaffi Honda CBR600RR) slotted in second on Thursday’s
times, with Ten Kate rider Broc Parkes third and Fabien Foret
(Belgarda Yamaha) maintaining a top four pace in the absence of his
team-mate Jurgen van den Goorbergh. Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor
Germany YZFR6) was fifth today.
Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Fila 749RS) could not get to the pace of the
top four cylinder entries, and went 13th fastest. One day remains
for all the entrants to improve their times and make final
preparations for the first race of the year at Valencia at the end
of the month.
Ducati Report
Regis Laconi (Ducati
Fila) again heads the field as official World Superbike pre-season
testing continued in Valencia. The Frenchman, who has been quickest
so far in two of the three days of testing, took half-a-second off
his best time to end the day with 1'36.01. Ducati Fila team-mate
James Toseland was not far behind Laconi, the British rider shaving
a further two-tenths of a second off his personal best to record
1'36.63, but he was again edged into third place, this time by Steve
Martin (DFX Ducati).
After reaching a satisfactory setting in the morning, Laconi (62
laps today) concentrated on his race simulation in the afternoon but
this was interrupted when he went wide. "We did a good job today"
declared Regis. "All the laps I recorded during my long-run were in
the low thirty-sixes, so I am much happier with my performance now.
I'm happy with the feeling I have reached with the 999 and I know
we're going in the right direction. We mustn't forget the other guys
who are close behind, but for the moment I'm pleased with the way
the tests are going."
Toseland (70 laps today), who completed his 'long-run' in the
morning and then concentrated on general set-up work in the
afternoon, was convinced there was more to come once he gets the
balance of his 999 right. "I'm pretty happy with the way things have
gone so far, but I just need that little bit extra feeling before I
can say I'm 100% comfortable with the bike" declared James. "I'm
sure there's more to come at Valencia and I'm just trying to figure
out how to get the balance right with the new front forks. This
track is really frustrating because the harder you try to go
quicker, the slower you go, so you mustn't be in a hurry to
improve."
Lorenzo Lanzi improved his time by more than half-a-second on the
second day of World Supersport testing at the Valencia circuit.
Despite a crash in the morning, the 22-year-old Italian finished the
day with twelfth quickest time of 1'39.31 in his 43 laps.
The Ducati Breil team were able to note that the direction taken
yesterday was the right one and that Lanzi was able to improve his
times relatively easily. The brand-new Ducati 749R is a bike that
will be making its Supersport debut this year against tough
opposition in one of the most hotly-contested championships in world
racing.
Ducati Corse tester Vittoriano Guareschi is also contributing to the
749R's development curve at Valencia, the Italian putting in 36
laps, with a best time of 1'40.47, three-tenths quicker than
yesterday. 'Vitto' was able to test various suspension settings
throughout the day as he tried to gauge the reactions of the 749R to
the Valencia circuit.
Foggy Petronas
Report
Troy Corser made great
strides forward to set the fifth fastest time on day two of the
World Superbike championship official winter test at Valencia.
Although he was forced to cut short his afternoon session by more
than an hour for essential work on his engines while lying third,
the Australian former world champion was able to better yesterday’s
time by more than a second to record a lap of 1:36.761 on the new
Pirelli tyres.
Team-mate Chris Walker
also finished the day on an upbeat note and was also able to make a
significant improvement on yesterday’s time, with a 10th best lap of
the day in 1:37.371.
Troy said: “I have
been doing the same times on a couple of tyre choices, so I know we
are going in the right direction now that we have altered the
suspension for these tyres. The change to the internal rear shock
produced more control but, in doing so, we lost a little grip. But
generally the grip from the Pirellis is pretty much the same as a
Dunlop. I was trying a harder compound in the afternoon and, as grip
was not too bad, it would have been nice to have done more laps on
it. The encouraging thing is that we are not too far off the pace.”
Chris said: “We are
chipping away and getting there, gradually. We have used a few of
our own tweaks and a few of Troy’s tweaks and, although we are still
experiencing some chatter which is preventing us from achieving full
potential, it is improving. I’m now looking forward to the final day
and I want to finish in the 36s, which I would be pretty chuffed
with at this stage. The boys in the team have worked so hard and I
am glad we are now making progress.” |
