Monday Jun 12 2006 Test – Monday FIRST DAY OF MID-SEASON TYRE DEVELOPMENT TEST FOR DUCATI XEROX TEAM AT BRNO Bologna (Italy), Monday 12th June: Troy Bayliss set the quickest time for the Ducati Xerox Team on the first day of a three-day mid-season test at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic. The Brno test, which is being held until Wednesday, has been organized by one-make WSBK championship tyre supplier Pirelli in view of the Czech round of the championship on July 23rd. Teams representing each World Superbike manufacturer (Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, Petronas, Suzuki and Yamaha) are present, and almost all the top riders in the championship apart from Troy Corser (Suzuki), who had to remain at home after contracting chicken pox. Despite a fall early in the morning, championship leader Bayliss was soon on the pace and the Australian ended the day with a best lap of 2m01.50s, a full second under last year’s pole mark. “Everything went well”, commented Troy. “I haven’t been here on a Superbike before but didn’t take much time to get into the swing of things, despite a come-off early on which was nothing serious. I did a sort of long-run and set a 2m01.5 on race tyres so I’m pretty happy.” Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi completed the first day of the tests in eighth place with a time of 2m03.70s. “Today could have gone a bit better” declared Lorenzo, “because I didn’t use the tyre that all the others used to set their quickest times. However we’ve still got a couple more days here in Brno and a lot of work to get through.” TIMES: 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 2m01.50s; 2. Walker (Kawasaki) 2m02.20s; 3. Muggeridge (Honda) 2m02.70s; 4. Haga (Yamaha) 2m02.70s; 5. Pitt (Yamaha) 2m03.00s; 6. Toseland (Honda) 2m03.00s; 7. Nieto (Kawasaki) 2m03.00s; 8. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 2m03.70s; 9. Kagayama (Suzuki) 2m04.50s; 10. Martin (Petronas) 2m04.70s. More, from a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing: Fluctuating fortunes for FPR in Brno Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Steve Martin and Craig Jones experienced fluctuating fortunes on the first day of a three-day test at the Czech Republic circuit of Brno. Steve finished the day 10th of the top Superbike World Championship riders taking part in the test, organised by series tyre manufacturer, Pirelli. But he was only able to complete 29 laps throughout the day and was forced to sit out much of the afternoon session after two engine failures. However, the Australian was still able to better his fastest race lap of last year by 1.2 seconds with a time of 2:04.70. Craig, on his first outing at the undulating circuit on the PETRONAS FP1 enjoyed a fruitful first day after solving early set-up problems when trying one of the latest development Pirelli tyres. He said: “It’s one of those circuits where you can really enjoy doing lots of laps. I started slowly but was consistently improving until I hit a bit of a brick wall with the set-up. But then I tried a 2006 tyre which had loads more grip – it was in a different league. Towards the end of the session Chris Walker gave me a bit of a tow and I was about a second up on my best time when the session was red-flagged, so things are looking really promising for tomorrow.” Steve said: “It was a frustrating day as I had to sit out most of the afternoon as engines needed to be changed in both my bikes. So we haven’t really had much of a chance to work through the various tests we had planned. Having said that I am already a lot faster on race tyres than I was last year here so, with a smooth run tomorrow, I am confident of making further progress.” First day times: 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 2m01.50s; 2. Walker (Kawasaki) 2m02.20s; 3. Muggeridge (Honda) 2m02.70s; 4. Haga (Yamaha) 2m02.70s; 5. Pitt (Yamaha) 2m03.00s; 6. Toseland (Honda) 2m03.00s; 7. Nieto (Kawasaki) 2m03.00s; 8. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 2m03.70s; 9. Kagayama (Suzuki) 2m04.50s; 10. Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 2m04.70s. 15 Jones (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 2m06.59s