The World Superbike teams returned to the track for the second official test since the season ending round at Portimao. This time the teams were in sunny Valencia for two days of testing on Wednesday and Thursday. Absent from the test were BMW (T. Corser, R. Xaus), Ducati (N. Haga, M. Fabrizio), Althea Ducati (C. Checa, S. Byrne) and Kawasaki (C. Vermulen, T. Sykes).After two days on the track Max Biaggi came away with a quick time of 1.33.8 on the factory Aprilia. He was followed closely by Leon Haslam who posted a time of 1.34.0 on the Alstare Suzuki. Six of the eight riders at the test were riding for new teams so most of the riders were still getting accustomed to riding new bikes and working with a new crew. Ben Spies superpole time for the 2009 Valencia race was 1.33.3.
1.33.8 - Max Biaggi - Aprilia Racing
1.34.0 - Leon Haslam - Suzuki Alstare
1.34.1 - Cal Crutchlow - Yamaha World Superbike
1.34.2 - Jonathan Rea - Hannspree Ten Kate Honda
1.34.3 - James Toseland - Yamaha World Superbike
1.34.7 - Max Neukirchner - Hannspree Ten Kate Honda
1.35.0 - Sylvain Guintoli - Suzuki Alstare
1.35.2 - Leon Camier - Aprilia Racing
Yoshimura Suzuki recently announced that they will be competing in several WSBK races next season with Yukio Kagayama when he’s not racing in the British Superbike series. The team will continue to race in the AMA Superbike Championship with Tommy Hayden and Blake Young next year, but they are withdrawing from the Japanese Superbike Championship. The mere mention of Yoshimura competing in WSBK brings the recently retired Mat Mladin to mind, and Mladin fueled speculation about a return to competition with this Twitter post on Wednesday, "A couple of World Superbike offers have come my way in the past month. One of them very good in regards to machinery. Decisions, decisions. ;-)". The 37 year old Mladin retired after winning the 2009 AMA Superbike Championship so he’s still competitive, and it was just over a year ago that a 39 year old Australian named Troy Bayliss won the 2008 World Superbike Championship.
