Ruben Xaus smashed the lap record on the first day of official Superbike testing at Valencia in preparation for the third round of the HANNspree Superbike World Championship here on April 6th. Ducati Sterilgarda Go Eleven’s Spanish rider, a winner here last year, lapped in a time of 1m34.265s, the best performance ever by a Superbike on this track.
Second quickest today was Yukio Kagayama, back in action again in record time after breaking his collarbone in the opening round in Qatar in February. Suzuki Alstare’s Japanese rider set a time of 1m35.368s and was the quickest rider out there on race tyres. Another Spanish rider Carlos Checa was also up at the front on the new CBR RR of the HANNspree Ten Kate Honda team, posting third quickest time of 1m35.395s.
In excellent weather conditions (air 23°C, track 32°C), Régis Laconi made good progress for the Kawasaki PSG-1 Corse squad, the Frenchman setting fifth quickest time ahead of Checa’s team-mate Ryuichi Kiyonari.
In the afternoon session Ayrton Badovini (Kawasaki) had a harmless crash and Laconi finished off the track.
Ruben Xaus will not be taking part in tomorrow’s second and final day of testing.
Ducati Xerox (Bayliss-Fabrizio), Yamaha Italia (Corser-Haga) and Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati’s Max Biaggi are absent from the tests.
Carlos Checa: "I’m positive about the testing we have done today. We arrived here with the bike setup we used in Australia and only needed little time to get into the quick lap times compared to last year’s ones. On average we are one second faster, but then the pace of most riders is quicker then last year’s. We have solved the problems we had earlier with the brakes, now with the speed increasing we experience some chattering like we did in Australian. The different swing arm and balance of suspension we’ve tested seem to work but cause little problems on which we’ll focus in tomorrow’s session."
Ryuichi Kiyonari: "We have improved the machine setting today and have tried many different settings to improve the machines balance. I seem to understand the machine better every time I leave the pit box. I also feel more comfortable and relaxed on the bike. In tomorrow’s test we’ll test some more settings of the machine in order to improve my pace and bring the lap times further down."
Kenan Sofuoglu: "It hasn’t been an easy day here today and I feel quite tired after the long sessions. I completed more laps then we normally do on race weekends. The lap times were definitely not fast enough but I’ve mainly focused on understanding the power usage and the traction control today. I obviously can’t be happy with this result but there’s another day of testing tomorrow."
Times:
1. Ruben Xaus SPA Sterilgarda Go Eleven 1098 RS08 1min 34.265 secs
2. Max Neukirchner GER Alstare Suzuki GSXR1000 1min 35.313 secs
3. Yukio Kagayama JPN Alstare Suzuki GSXR1000 1min 35.368 secs
4. Carlos Checa SPA Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR 1min 35.395 secs
5. Ryuichi Kiyonari JPN Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR 1min 35.797 secs
6. Regis Laconi ITA PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse ZX10R 1min 35.910 secs
7. Fonsi Nieto SPA Alstare Suzuki GSXR1000 1min 35.993 secs
8. Lorenzo Lanzi ITA RG Racing 1098 RS08 1min 36.018 secs
9. Makoto Tamada JPN PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse ZX10R 1min 36.047 secs
10. Roberto Rolfo ITA Hannspree Honda Althea CBR1000RR 1min 36.182 secs
11. Karl Muggeridge AUS D.F. Racing CBR1000RR 1min 36.211 secs
12. Shinichi Nakatomi JPN Yamaha Motor France-Ipone YZF R1 1min 36.600 secs
13. Ayrton Badovini GBR Team Pedercini ZX-10R 1min 36.853 secs
Supersport times:
1. G. Gowland 1’37.972
2. A. Pitt 1’38.033
3. G. Vizziello 1’38.060
4. M. Roccoli 1’38.095
5. C. Jones 1’38.110
6. G. Nannelli 1’38.184
7. J. Rea 1’38.583
8. C. Walker 1’38.600
9. G. Leblanc 1’38.712
10. B. Veneman 1’38.764
