Updated Post: More From The Wet World Superbike, Supersport Test At Valencia

Updated Post: More From The Wet World Superbike, Supersport Test At Valencia

© 2005, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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From a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda:

BAD WEATHER LIMITS TESTING FOR WINSTON TEN KATE HONDA

The Winston Ten Kate Honda team left the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, Spain early this morning, one day ahead of schedule after heavy rain prevented any further testing of the team’s 2005 Honda CBR machines.

Only superbike rider, Chris Vermeulen, and Katsuaki Fuijiwara of the supersport team took to the circuit yesterday (Monday) in cold and damp conditions.

“It’s unfortunate,” commented team manager, Ronald ten Kate, “but we can do nothing about the weather. There is a silver lining in these clouds, however, in that we can have an extra day to prepare everything for Qatar.”

The team will spend the next few days loading almost eight tonnes of equipment into 15 crates that will be shipped to Qatar early next week in preparation for a further test at the Losail circuit in Doha on 19-20 February, followed one week later by the first World Superbike and World Supersport championship rounds.

“We have been able to do further shakedown tests on Chris’s and Kats’s second bikes to ensure everything is working properly but there was no possibility of fully testing any new components,” added ten Kate.

“We always have to balance the benefits of testing against risk,” he concluded. “So, after the team launch in Milan next Tuesday, we fly straight to Qatar where we will hopefully get some dry track time at last!”


More, from a press release issued by Scuderia SC Caracchi-NCR:

THE RAIN STOPS THE VALENCIA’S TWO-DAY TEST

The heavy rain which flagellates the circuit area for all the night and the morning forced the end for the test of SC Ducati Team. The factory teams like Xerox Ducati Corse and Yamaha France rode some lap on the floated track to test some new rain tyre, but all the other teams preferred to run any risk at the eve of the first round of the championship.

“It has been a true misfortune to not make o good use of this two-day test session..” – said Stefano Caracchi renouncing to go on with the test. “Fonsi Nieto will fly in Qatar in practice without any experience of the 999RS. Yesterday Fonsi made an excellent job: without pushing he rode about 1,5 seconds slower as the top, but it’s obvious that he needs to practice more to get a good feeling with the bike in all racing conditions. By luck the first rounds are scheduled on circuits that he knows, at least we haven’t the unknown track doubts. However to start the season on a quite unknown bike which is very different of the 250GP he’s used to will be not easy also for a full experienced rider like he’s.”

“Lorenzo Lanzi suffered the light crash of yesterday morning.” – continues Caracchi. “Lorenzo has a enormous potential, he must force himself to ignore the pressure that all the people looking for his results could cause. But he’s not only very fast in riding, he’s a clever guy too, able to get experience out of his mistakes and I’m sure that he’ll be a protagonist od the racing season from the beginning.”

Late Caracchi starts speaking about Supersport program, which represents an important engagement for Scuderia SC Ducati this year.

“Farnè and his guys has done an excellent work on the 749R and yesterday we have seen the first results. That’s not a newness for him to pull out from the smaller twin engine all his potential. Unfortunately the bad weather doesn’t allow us to work on the setting of the chassis package. Nannelli looks to be very up and satisfied for the job done, we are satisfied for how he engages himself to develop the bike. I’m confident we’ll be able to contest a good championship in Supersport too.”


More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

DUCATI XEROX TEAM SUPERBIKE TEST CUT SHORT BY RAIN

Valencia (Spain), Tuesday 8 February: The Ducati Xerox Team’s penultimate test before the start of the 2005 World Superbike championship season was cut short early in the afternoon of the second day of testing as rain continued to lash the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, forcing riders and engineers to pack up early.

Cold and wet throughout the scheduled two-day test meant that very little dry-weather track time was completed, but James Toseland and Régis Laconi were both quick in these conditions and declared they were satisfied with the set-up and the handling of the Ducati 999 F05 on the wet track.

Toseland was slightly quicker than his French team-mate today, the 24 year-old from Sheffield recording a time of 1:52.3 in his 18 laps.

“It was a pity about the weather conditions because I really wanted to come here and put in some endurance lapping on the bike to sort everything out,” declared the reigning world champion, “but it’s not a problem and we’re in a good position as we go to Qatar for two more days of testing”.

“The 999 F05 is ready, we’ve just got to get rid of the teething problems you usually have with a new bike. There are a lot of new parts and we’ve got to test everything. Everything is looking good, it’s just a case of having more time to do more laps”, added Toseland.

Laconi, just a couple of tenths of a second slower in his 23 laps, was upbeat about his and his bike’s performance despite crashing late in the morning.

“Today was OK in these conditions”, declared Régis. “We were running full wets because it was raining a lot out on the track but we worked very well to improve the 999’s handling and set-up in these conditions. The track was very slippery and I lost the rear on the entry to the final right-hander and had a small crash but there is no problem”.

“I am happy about what we found this morning and it feels so great to work with my engineers in the team again. We’ve still got a few things to do but I can’t wait for the season to start”, he concluded.

The Ducati Xerox Team now heads to Qatar for the final two days of pre-season testing on February 18-19 in preparation for the opening round of the 2005 championship at the Losail circuit in the Arabian peninsula state on February 26.


More, from a press release issued by Pirelli:

Test Session Report

7th-8th FEBRUARY 2005, Valencia (Spain) – Only few days before the Championship’s start and some of the main actors of the new season have met for a two days test session in Valencia, Spain.

Pirelli and the riders came here looking for both confirms and new indications for the development.

The work of Pirelli’s Technicians didn’t stop all the winter long, so the Spanish track was the best place for Pirelli to test the new improvements and for the private riders to check the last tires developed in accordance to the development teams.

After last December test, the R&D department has realized new solutions to be tested here by some of the development teams (with the 4 cylinders Honda and the Ducati). In the meantime the private riders have the chance to try the last released tyres, approved only two months ago and available for the first round in Qatar.

Together with the new products we could assist to the debut of some great names of the Championship, like the Japanese Abe with his R1 of Yamaha France, the first laps of the new Ducati Xerox team with the World Champion Toseland and his team mate Laconi, and the Spanish Cardoso and Fonsi Nieto with his new bike, for the first time on a track after the presentation of two weeks ago.

Unfortunately the weather made this all more difficult, with a really low temperature and an unusual rainy day for the Valencian track. Anyway nobody renounced to run some laps, even if with no trials for a lap time and most of them with rain tyres.

Giorgio Barbier, Pirelli Moto world racing manager:

“From the tests of November we’ve done a lot of work, and we wanted to test many new solutions that would be available for the first races. Today with this rain we had really a bad luck. Let’s wait for tomorrow even if we have already achieved a good result being able to deliver to this guys the last improved tyres, the result of the work we made after December. Unfortunately they could use this new tyres only during the last minutes of the day.

Anyway we go on working hard and we can see some good results. Our development teams are really fantastic partners and they allow us to present always some improvement that make this Championship more and more competitive and our products more and more reliable and performing.”

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