Day two of Australian Superbike Test a great success
9 February 2016
Conditions were nothing short of a dream come true today at Phillip Island with impeccable weather, for the second day of the two-day test for the Australian Superbikes.
After a productive day yesterday, riders and teams were able to consolidate and move forward with their testing today, focussing on tyre selection and track conditions, most importantly putting down the rubber to improve on lap times and gain further experience on the circuit.
With the open track format today, riders were able to utilise the differing conditions to their advantage. Someone who knows all about the importance of test days is Jon Daniels Racing’s Daniel Falzon on his Yamaha R1, testing the tyre conditions on what is a notoriously demanding Phillip Island circuit. Falzon ended today with a lap time of 1.34.093.
“We have been working with Seb from Dunlop and Ken for the past two days, just trying to see which tyre Phillip Island really requires and what tyre handles it the best,” he said.
“The track as we see at MotoGP and the World Superbikes events, is very demanding on the tyres. Dunlop has bought many tyres for us to test and I think we have something here that will do the race for sure,”
“As for yesterday we are very happy with our progress I think with a bit more development with these Dunlop tyres and a bit more testing we can really put it up with the other manufactures and I believe we have a really competitive package so far.”
DesmoSport Ducati rider Mike Jones proved his stamina and determination by topping the times in the Superbike category today, with an improved time of 1.33.233 ahead of his fellow Superbike competitors.
Supersport rider Mark Chiodo had another successful day on board his Triumph 675, making significant progress after day one. With Chiodo having only raced professionally for a year and a half, this young man has proven today that hard work pays off and couldn’t get the grin off his face after two demanding days on the bike.
“I started off pretty good but towards the end it got pretty hot,” he said.
“The wind picked up a bit, which made riding difficult, other than that it was a good day to start off with.
“It’s the first time topping the time sheets, and it’s the first time I have been down to the times. I am pretty happy with the results”
“We are pretty happy and confident leading into the series, especially to know that I am there now, but still have room to get better.”
As the two-day test comes to a conclusion, competitors will now focus their attention on gearing up for a spectacular round of the World Superbike Championship and round one of the Australian Superbike Championship at Phillip Island at the end of February.
A great big thank you to Paul Free of MotoLogic who organised the event for all riders attending. It was great to see the Racesafe team down at the Phillip Island circuit over the two days overseeing the event.
Be sure to keep up to date with all of the racing action at www.ma.org.au or www.ma.org.au