WINSTON MEN ON PACE IN FRANCE The Winston Ten Kate Honda team has declared itself satisfied with progress after two days testing in warm and sunny conditions at Magny-Cours in central France. The 4.4km circuit near Nevers will host the final round of the 2005 World Superbike championship on 9th October. With several new Pirelli tyres to evaluate, Chris Vermeulen and Karl Muggeridge have also spent the two-day test working with a number of different swing-arm specifications and rear suspension components to improve the power delivery on their Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RRs. Ronald Ten Kate team manager: “It’s been a very good test and we started with the general set-up that we know, with some information from the race here last year. When the riders were lapping around the best race times from last year, we moved on to testing the development parts that we brought and a selection of new tyres from Pirelli. We’ve basically been lacking good drive out of the corners this season and we’ve tested a lot of different parts to improve that area of the bike. Both riders have been testing different components and then swapping to confirm the information we’ve been getting. It’s been very positive and, after we’ve studied everything again back at the workshop, we can move on to Misano with confidence.” Chris Vermeulen best time, 1:41.5 (on race tyre): “I’ve done loads of laps here 89 yesterday and I think even more than that today. I’m pretty tired and the wrist that I injured last year has started to ache a little, but we’ve definitely found out a lot about which way we need to go. We’re looking for a little more flex in the swingarm to get the power down more easily so we’ve tried some different swingarm and rear linkage combinations to achieve that. Pretty early yesterday morning I went six tenths quicker than my best race lap last year and that was on a well-worn tyre. We’ve also tested a load of new stuff from Pirelli new constructions, compounds and shapes. Like a lot of the other parts we’ve tried here, they all had advantages and disadvantages. But when we put all the good bits together I know we’ll be in much better shape.” Karl Muggeridge best time, 1:42.2 (on race tyre): “It’s been a really valuable two days, finally getting to spend some time in good weather to try a heap of different things. It’s really been the first proper test time for me since I stepped up to Superbikes and the sunshine here has helped me make the most of it. The different swingarms and linkages we’ve mostly been trying have been good and we’ve made some progress in getting the grip down better during acceleration out of corners. The only slightly frustrating thing is that I haven’t been able to try all the good bits together. But we know which will be the best combination and hopefully that will set us up well for the next few races.” Magny-Cours, France (4.41km) 2004 Superpole time Troy Corser (Petronas) 1m41.547s 2004 fastest race lap Steve Martin (Ducati) 1m42.312s