Following the two exhilarating World Superbike races in Jerez over the weekend, the majority of teams stayed on for Monday’s post-race test. With sunshine beating down, the test ran for eight hours between 10am and 6pm.
October conditions were typically foggy in the morning, but the mist rose as an intense day of testing commenced. Barni Racing Team, Grillini Racing Team, IodaRacing Team, Milwaukee BMW and VFT Racing had already planned to skip the test, but Team GOELEVEN joined them on the sidelines as the squad running Roman Ramos suffered a broken engine and had no replacement unit.
A total of 15 riders submitted lap times throughout the day, with most sampling new or modified components ahead of the 2017 season. This was certainly the case for the World Champion Kawasaki Racing Team which, due to rule changes next year will no longer be able to use split throttle bodies; the Honda WorldSBK Team and MV Agusta Reparto Corse are another two teams set to be affected by this alteration – and worked accordingly. At Aruba.it Racing – Ducati, new parts for 2017 included a raft of suspension components.
The best time came from Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), posting 1’40.815 to comfortably move underneath his race record from 2015. The top five was completed by teammate Tom Sykes, Jerez double race winner Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) and Nicky Hayden (Honda WorldSBK Team).
Yamaha looked to reconfirm its direction of development for 2016 as well as sampling 2017 parts and components for the upcoming Qatar race at the end of October. Honda’s focus was on new brake calipers, clutchsettings and new steering dampers as well as working with the aforementioned stock throttle body. They also ran new front forks and axle clamps – something the Althea BMW Racing Team sampled as well.
In the Pedercini Racing garage, Saeed Al Sulaiti rode the World Superbike machine, focusing on engine braking settings and traction control maps, whilst the Italian outfit tested its Superstock 1000 bike with World Supersport rider Illia Mykhalchyk and STK1000 regular Sebestyen Suchet. Further up the pit lane, Team Toth and Peter Sebestyen carried out a back-to-back comparison of a new specification engine.
Riders to suffer Turn 1 crashes included Mykhalchyk, Al Sulaiti and Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), while Althea BMW duo Jordi Torres and Markus Reiterberger also experienced off-track moments during the day. In the final hour, Sykes ground to a halt with a technical problem at the first corner.
All of the teams worked with new tyres from Pirelli, as the Italian company supplied two new frontand three new rear solutions for the field to taste.
The WorldSBK paddock will regroup on the 28th to 30th October for the Qatar season finale under the floodlights of Doha’s Losail International Circuit.
