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Aprilia, Ducati and BMW all headed to Valencia for more testing after spending the weekend testing at Portimao in Portugal. Ducati tested on Wednesday and Thursday, and were hampered by wet and cold conditions. As usual Noriyuki Haga was optimistic, “We continued with the work started at Portimao, testing suspension settings and various tire compounds. I also tried a new clutch which seemed to perform well, and my lap times were fairly fast seeing as it was extremely cold. I'd say we're very happy, although we've seen that the privateer Ducatis of Checa and Byrne were also very fast so I guess the first race of the season will be very interesting.”
Carlos Checa and Shakey Byrne were riding the Althea Racing Ducatis, and Checa was the quickest of all the riders on hand for the test. Checa moved over to the team in the off season after spending last year with the Ten Kate Honda team, "I'm happy with my test today. We have worked very well, despite the cold temperature. After Portimao and Valencia test I'm feeling more comfortable on both my Ducati 1198 bikes. This afternoon I scored the best lap time, that's always something good.”
Aprilia was another team that was forced to suffer through the bad weather, and they decided to leave the test a day early. Although last year’s return to the class was marked by continuous progress Max Biaggi for one was feeling the need for more test time, "This could be a problem because we didn't get the confirmation we were looking for. Now the situation is a bit more complicated, we'll be testing in Australia before the race, but if there are any problems then it will be too late to do anything.”
The factory BMW notched the slowest times of the test under new team manager David Tardozzi, but Troy Corser was upbeat, “We’ve gained a lot of useful information for the engineers and technicians during these two days, and if I had to race the bike tomorrow I wouldn’t be unhappy at all. We used standard tires throughout the test, and if the conditions had been a bit better and more rubber had been down, I’m sure I could’ve gone faster.”
In other World Superbike news Yoshimura Suzuki has announced that they will enter the Assen and Magny-Cours rounds with Yukio Kagayama and the Imola race with Daisaku Sakai. This announcement would seem to end any chance of Matt Mladin racing in the championship this year. Mladin was rumored to be a possible rider for both Yoshimura and BMW after retiring at the end of the AMA Superbike season. Mladin added fuel to those stories when he posted on Twitter saying he was looking at some interesting offers.
The final pre-season tests will be held in Australia on February 21-22 prior to the first round of the season at Phillip Island on February 28th.
The World Superbike teams finished up their first official test of the new year on Sunday at the Portimao circuit in Portugal. The riders started the test on Friday in good conditions, and the quickest riders out of the box were Leon Haslam on the Suzuki GSXR-1000 and Jonathan Rea on the Honda CBR1000RR. Haslam led both sessions of day one for his new Alstare team, but Rea was only a few tenths behind on his Ten Kate mount. Shakey Byrne and Michel Fabrizio on Ducatis, Cal Crutchlow and James Toseland on Yamahas and Max Biaggi on the Aprilia were all less than .5 off the time of Haslam.
Wet conditions prevailed at the track on Saturday with the top time from the first session down 12.3 seconds from Friday’s quick time. The weather improved for session two, but the best time was still 6.3 seconds off Friday’s best. The conditions in session one were so bad that Byrne, Fabrizio, Biaggi and Haga stayed in the pits. Rea and Haslam continued to battle it out for the top spot, but it was Rea who came away with the quickest time in both sessions. Rainmeister Chris Vermulen managed to come away with the third quickest time of session one on the Paul Bird Kawasaki ZX 10R, but his times for all of the other sessions were outside the top ten. Crutchlow was fourth in both sessions on the Yamaha YZF R1.
Conditions improved on Sunday and the riders were able to set the fastest times of the weekend, but it was still Rea and Haslam at the top. Rea once again took the quick time in both session, but Haslam was never far off his pace. Haga and Fabrizio were consistent runners all weekend, and managed to run third and fourth quickest in the early Sunday session. Rea continued his dominance in the final session with a time .287 seconds quicker than anything that had been run all weekend.
With the departure of Ben Spies and John Hopkins the only American riding in the series is Roger Hayden. Riding for a new team on an unfamiliar circuit Hayden’s quickest time was 4.7 seconds off the quick time of Rea. Fellow American Jason DiSalvo was at Portimao testing a World Supersport Triumph 675 for his new team. DiSalvo ended the weekend ninth fastest and 2.7 seconds off the top time set by Eugene Laverty on a Honda CBR600RR.
BMW, Aprilia and Ducati will be testing at Valencia this week. The first race of the season is at Phillip Island on February 28th, and the teams will fly out to the Australian circuit the week prior to the race for their final pre-season test.
World Superbike Test Times
1.42.270 -0.000 Rea J.
1.42.557 -0.287 Haslam L.
1.42.877 -0.607 Byrne S.
1.42.960 -0.690 Crutchlow C.
1.43.137 -0.867 Fabrizio M.
1.43.157 -0.887 Toseland J.
1.43.364 -1.094 Biaggi M.
1.43.417 -1.147 Haga N.
1.43.471 -1.201 Neukirchner M.
1.43.508 -1.238 Guintoli S.
1.43.629 -1.359 Checa C.
1.43.749 -1.479 Camier L.
1.43.931 -1.661 Corser T.
1.44.108 -1.838 Vermeulen C.
1.44.365 -2.095 Sykes T.
1.44.570 -2.300 Xaus R.
1.44.751 -2.481 Parkes B.
1.45.348 -3.078 Iannuzzo V.
1.46.990 -4.720 Hayden R.
1.47.293 -5.023 Fores J.
The World Superbike Championship is coming back to life after a short winter recess. The teams continue their search for speed and reliability, and the riders push their bodies through pre-season training as the 2010 championship begins to take shape. The teams will be heading to the Portimao circuit in Portugal for their first pre-season test on the 22nd of January.
All of the top teams have had their rider lineups in place for several months, but several teams are still signing riders. Roger Lee Hayden is the latest American rider to find his way into WSBK after a career in the AMA series that included a Supersport championship. The youngest member of the Hayden clan will be riding for the Pedercini Kawasaki team. Chaz Davies is another rider who will be leaving the AMA to ride in a world championship series. Davies will be riding as a teammate to Gary McCoy on the Triumph BE1 Racing team in the World Supersport Championship. Davies, who’s career has included rides in MotoGP, 250GP, 125GP and a win in the Daytona 200, rode in the last three rounds of last year’s WSS championship for the BE1 team after finishing ninth in the 2009 Daytona SportBike Championship on an Aprilia RSV1000R.
In other news, David Tardozzi has signed on as Team Manager for BMW Motorrad Motorsport. Tardozzi comes to BMW after a successful run at Ducati that included nine manufacturers' titles and eight riders' titles in the World Superbike Championship, "I imagine a lot of people will be surprised to hear of my decision to join BMW. However, for me the decision was simple. I had offers from MotoGP, but my heart is in the Superbike World Championship, and I feel at home here. BMW Motorrad Motorsport is a young and hungry team, and that gives me the challenge I have been looking for.” BMW enters its second year in the championship after showing continuous improvement over the course of their inaugural season. Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus return to ride for the factory team, and the newly-formed Reitwagen Motorsport team will field a BMW S 1000 RR for Austrian Roland Resch.
Tardozzi’s departure from Ducati Corse has forced a reorganization that will see former technical manager Ernesto Marinelli taking over as team manager along with other changes in the team’s management structure. Marinelli talked about the team he will lead, “Despite the important reorganization within the team, in reality most of the new members have already been working in Ducati for some time. 2010 once again represents a new challenge. . .we have faced many over the years and in most cases we have come out victorious. We will be doing our very best to take another title this year.” Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio return as riders for the factory team.
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Aprilia, Ducati and BMW all headed to Valencia for more testing after spending the weekend testing at Portimao in Portugal. Ducati tested on Wednesday and Thursday, and were hampered by wet and cold conditions. As usual Noriyuki Haga was optimistic, “We continued with the work started at Portimao, testing suspension settings and various tire compounds. I also tried a new clutch which seemed to perform well, and my lap times were fairly fast seeing as it was extremely cold. I'd say we're very happy, although we've seen that the privateer Ducatis of Checa and Byrne were also very fast so I guess the first race of the season will be very interesting.”
