Yamaha's Tom Sykes broke his foot in a crash on the final day's testing at the South African track. The Huddersfield youngster had suffered with a mystery bug for the first two days and then, due to a mechanical fault, he slipped off at the end of the back straight.
Sykes broke his foot in the fall and suffered tissue damage in his shoulder as well the usual bumps and bruises associated with a 100mph+ crash.
Ten Kate Honda's three Superbike riders tested a varoety of new swingarms, suspension and electronics packages over the three day-test, with WSB rookie Jonathan Rea declaring the test good fun.
The test has been really, really good and a lot of fun. We got through a huge amount of work and did a lot of laps. I’m in pretty good physical condition so I’m not suffering too much, but I’m pretty tired mentally." said the Irishman.
"After my first World Superbike race in Portugal, which was pretty intense, it was good to get a bit more of a good feeling for the bike and I think that, with two tests still to come, we can be up at the front next year. It’s going to be a really exciting season but it’s clear we’ll have to be on it every weekend because the competition is going to be really strong."
Team boss Ronald Ten Kate added: "On the Superbikes, we have tested new swingarm and suspension setups and electronics packages and there was a lot of variety for the riders to try. We got through a lot of work and have found a clear direction in which to develop the CBR1000RR. We’ll put this to the test at Portimao in January, when we’ll have fewer new items to try.
"We can be quite happy with the results of the test and know that there is clearly more to come. On the Supersport side of the garage, we were using 2008 machinery with some new parts, which were working quite well. We’ll build that knowledge into the new 2009 CBR600RR in time for its first test in Portugal."
Sykes' Yamaha Italia team-mate Ben Spies was right on the pace, only slipping on the second day due to a crash which wrecked his bike. the team’s minor modifications to the standard bike include a modified cam-shaft, an enlarged radiator for extra cooling and the addition of an oil cooler. The new bike has no rear sub-frame but incorporates a strengthened frame.
The exhaust is unique, and was developed in partnership with Akrapovic. The standard fuel tank has also been replaced with an aluminium tank with increased capacity. The bike features the latest Magneti Marelli electronic systems. The new swing arm is also developed purely for the WSB race bike based on knowledge taken from the 2008 racing season.
“I’m really happy with the bike, the team and the progress we’re making,” said the three-times AMA Champion. “This was the first time we had the opportunity to go out and size ourselves up against everyone in a major test. We’re ahead of where we thought we’d be at this point. There are two more test sessions this winter and I expect the bike will continue to improve as we move towards the season opener at Phillip Island in March.
It looks like Alstare Suzuki will be a two-man team for 2009 after Fonsi Nieto didn't show up at the Kyalami tests, leaving Max Neukirchner and Yukio Kagayama to do the development work.
"I am happy about this test and the work we did here. It’s always difficult testing or racing at altitude, but we managed to try lots of different things and made a lot of progress," said the German.
"We changed the balance of the bike for the afternoon and I was doing a long run when the red flag came out and that prevented us getting some valuable data. We had some problems yesterday, but still went fast, but today we had problems and could not go fast! It wasn’t so hard to do good lap times, but it was hard to then shave off those fractions of a second and go even quicker.
