TRIUMPHANT TEST FOR FPR AT EUROSPEEDWAY FPR’s rider pairing of Steve Martin and Craig Jones today completed a comprehensive and valuable three day Pirelli-organised test, at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz circuit in Germany. With both riders having worked through the tyre test programme, achieved sound chassis set-ups and completed final evaluations of the latest PETRONAS FP1 developments over three trouble-free days, the team is upbeat as it heads to Brno for the next round of the Superbike World Championship. Craig, who spent much of the day evaluating different chassis set-ups as well as front and rear tyres on the 4.265km tight and twisty circuit, sliced almost another second off his time to record a fastest lap of 1:40.5. Steve was also able to improve on his best lap from yesterday, to post a time of 1:40.1 on race tyres faster than his qualifying and quickest time on the PETRONAS FP1 during last year’s race weekend at the German track. Craig said, “I started off with a completely new setting this morning based on Steve’s setting from yesterday, which I liked and made good ground from the outset. We then fine tuned it, mainly in the suspension area, and that made the bike a bit easier to ride and I started to go quicker. I’ve also tested all the tyres we needed to and luckily all the ones I like are going to be on the allocation for the race here. I’m definitely pleased with how this test has gone overall and hopefully will be able to continue progressing in the same vein throughout the second half of this season.” Steve commented, “It’s been a very useful test as we’ve been able to pinpoint very specific areas where we need to improve for this track. On race tyres I’ve been able to sit at the same lap times as I did in qualifying last year and, the latest bike developments have been tested successfully. That proves again that we’re moving forward all the time with the FP1 and provides encouragement going into the next races.” The three day EuroSpeedway test was attended by all the tyre development teams representing each World Superbike manufacturer (PETRONAS, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Ducati and Honda) along with all of the top team riders in the championship. EuroSpeedway has been used as a World Superbike venue on three occasions in 2001, 2002 and 2005 and Steve, riding on Pirelli tyres, claimed provisional pole in 2001 despite competing against riders on the then more proven Michelin and Dunlop rubber. Foggy PETRONAS Racing and the World Superbike paddock return to EuroSpeedway for the tenth round of the Championship on 10 September. For more news visit our web site: www.foggyPETRONASracing.com More, from a press release issued by Ducati Xerox Team: DUCATI XEROX TEAM PREPARES FOR SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON WITH THREE-DAY TEST AT THE LAUSITZRING Bologna (Italy), Monday 17 July: The Ducati Xerox Team has been preparing for the second half of the 2006 World Superbike season, which resumes this coming weekend at Brno, with a test session organized by championship tyre supplier Pirelli for the various manufacturer development teams at the Eurospeedway Lausitz in Germany. After three days of testing from Saturday to today in perfect weather conditions, the top time of the test was set by Troy Bayliss and Noriyuki Haga in 1m38.2s, but the Ducati Xerox Team had already decided to cut short its scheduled programme after the third and final morning, while some other riders were still out on the track in the afternoon. Points leader Troy Bayliss, who has not set foot in the German speedway since he won both races there in 2002, was pleased to be back and confident that the test had been positive. “We went really well” declared the 37-year-old Australian. “I did lots of laps, 84, 86 and 60 today and two long-runs; today’s race simulation went even better than yesterday’s. The times are very close because it seems that everyone, in particular the Yamaha guys, are all picking up their game a bit, but we’ve been trying to make the rear tyre last longer rather than go for more speed and as a result our performance over race distance is really good”. Lorenzo Lanzi, who returned to the scene of his sensational maiden World Superbike win last year, was sixth quickest but the 24-year-old Italian said that he was pleased with his testing performance, especially on race tyres. “I am quite satisfied with the test here. I found a race tyre that I am happy with and we tried a few things with the electronics and suspension and I’m happy with the set-up. It’s been very important to test here especially just before the next race at Brno; since last year the pace has been upped by about a second and you really have to work hard all the time to get the best results”. TIMES (race tyres): 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) + Haga (Yamaha) 1m38.2s; 3. Pitt (Yamaha) 1m38.3s; 4. Corser (Suzuki) + Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m38.4s; 6. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox), Toseland (Honda) + Muggeridge (Honda) 1m39.0s; 9. Walker (Kawasaki) 1m39.5s; 10. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1m39.7s. TIMES (qualifying tyres): 1. Haga & Corser 1m37.6s; 3. Bayliss 1m37.8s; 4. Pitt 1m38.1s; 5. Lanzi 1m38.5s; 6. Kagayama 1m38.6s; 7. Toseland 1m38.7s; 8. Walker 1m39.2s; 9. Nieto 1m39.5s; 10. Martin (Petronas) 1m40.1s. More, from a press release issued by Pirelli: PIRELLI TESTS WORLD SUPERBIKE AND SUPERSPORT DIABLO SBK AND SUPERCORSA TIRES Milan (Italy) Today ended the Lausitz test, and the SBK is already on the move. Just a few days and the paddock will be again full of the SBK energy, in Brno, waiting for the race of Sunday. During the past three days at Lausitz both the Pirelli Diablo SBK (slick 16,5″ tyres for WSBK) and the brand new Diablo Supercorsa (17″ DOT, grooved tyre for the Supersport WC) have shown their excellent performances by setting great times. Pirelli brought to the development team riders of the WSBK 10 new front tyres and 12 rear tyres (including also qualifying), with important news both regarding the compounds and the structures. Already in the first day of testing riders could be faster than in last year race when the best lap was scored by Noriyuki Haga at the 7th lap of Race2 with the time of 1’39.790. With race tyres Bayliss ended the first day with the fastest lap scoring the same time as Haga (1’39.00), than on the second day improved his time setting the same time as Pitt: 1’38.3, that means 1.4″ faster than in 2005 race. After three days and a lot of work on the setup, Bayliss could perform the best long-run, 28″ faster than last year race, and achieved also the best lap time with race tyres, again with Haga. The leader of the Championship is always fast, but the Yamaha R1 proved to be very consistent, and Haga made the fastest lap both with race and qualifying tyres. Yamaha thus finds in Lausitz a perfect battlefield, and even in the Supersport class who is actually missing Charpentier still suffering from the crash of Brno it seems that the bike able to exploit at the full the Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa on the Lausitzring circuit is the R6 of the Yamaha Germany team. Superbike World Championship: Race ’05: Best lap: Haga lap 7 Race 2: 1’39.790 Pole: Lanzi 1’39.019 Best times set in this test with race tyres and qualifying tyres. Haga Yamaha 1’38.2/1’37.6 Bayliss Ducati 1’38.2/1’37.8 Pitt Yamaha 1’38.3/1’38.1 Corser Suzuki 1’38.4/1’37.6 Kagayama Suzuki 1’38.4/1’38.6 Lanzi Ducati 1’39.0/1’38.5 Toseland Honda 1’39.0/1’38.7 Muggeridge Honda 1’39.0/ nn Walker Kawasaki 1’39.5/1’39.2 Nieto Kawasaki 1’39.7/1’39.5 Martin Petronas 1’40.1/1’40.1 Jones Petronas 1’40.5/ nn Supersport World Championship: Race ’05: Best lap: Curtain lap 5: 1’42.438 Best laps in this test – Race tyres (Supersport class doesn’t use qualifying tyres) Curtain Yamaha 1’41.6 Parkes Yamaha 1’41.7 Sofuoglu Honda 1’41.8 Zaiser Ducati 1’42.4 Andersen Suzuki 1’42.6 Veneman Suzuki 1’42.9 Berger Kawasaki 1’43.6 More, from a press release issued by FG Sport: HAGA AND CORSER LEAD AFTER THREE DAY TEST EQUAL ON TIMES BUT HAGA EDGES THE GLORY The SBK development teams enjoyed a fruitful three days test session at Eurospeedway Lausitz, evaluating the latest crop of Pirelli tyres at the self-same track they will race on when the SBK series stops off in Germany in September. Both race tyres and qualifying rubber were tried out at Lausitz, by teams representing all of the major manufacturers involved in both SBK and World Supersport championships. Fastest overall – in both race and qualifying trim – proved to be Yamaha rider Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia). He had his best qualifying tyre time (1’37.6) matched by Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) but went marginally faster than the Aussie rider on race rubber, edging ahead in the final analysis. Haga’s best race tyre time was also matched by Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox), who was third quickest with a qualifying set-up, having made two long runs on race rubber to test ultimate tyre endurance. The Ducati team broke off testing early, having completed their planned body of work. The best SBK lap previously recorded (in qualifying trim) was 1’39.019, the race lap record being 1’39.679. Only four riders failed to beat the previous best qualifying best at some stage of the test. FAST STARTER KEEPS IT UP Haga proved to be equal quickest out of the blocks on day one, taking the joint fastest time with Bayliss after a single day of action, and kept up the good pace from then on, eventually beating his own personal best Lausitz race lap by 1.5 seconds, with a race tyre fitted. On day two, Bayliss and Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) were the new fastest riders, until the final day reduced the best times still further. The Winston Honda Ten Kate squad of James Toseland and Karl Muggeridge spent large amounts of time working with their new electronics packages, and this contributed to each not breaking through the 1’39 barrier, with the English and Aussie riders setting an identical best time of 1’39.0, while using race tyres. Toseland did not improve this on qualifying tyres, while Muggeridge did not use a qualifier. The next port of call for all involved is Brno, for round seven, on 23 July. WORLD SUPERPSORT In the Supersport class, the planned appearance of injured championship leader Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) proved to be optimistic, despite his assertion that he will ride at Brno in the forthcoming race weekend. The Supersport pace was nonetheless as blistering as expected, with Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes (both Yamaha Motor Germany) scoring the quickest times, comfortably under the previous Brno WSS best of 1’42.017. TIMES SBK – R = Race Tyre, Q = Qualifying Tyre Noriyuki Haga (Y) R 1’38”2, Q 1’37”6 Troy Corser (S) R 1’38”4, Q 1’37”6 Troy Bayliss (D) R 1’38”2, Q 1’37”8 Andrew Pitt (Y) R 1’38”3, Q 1’38”1 Lorenzo Lanzi (D) R 1’39”0, Q 1’38”5 Yukio Kagayama (S) R 1’38”4, Q 1’38”6 James Toseland (H) R 1’39”0, Q 1’39”7 Karl Muggeridge (H) (H) R 1’39”0, NO Q Chris Walker (K) (K) R 1’39”5, Q 1’39”2 Fonso Nieto (K) R 1’39”7, Q 1’39”5 Steve Martin (P) R 1’40”1, Q 1’40”1 Craig Jones (P) R 1’40”5, NO Q WSS Kevin Curtain (Y) 1’41”6 Broc Parkes (Y) 1’41”7 Kenan Sofuoglu (H) 1’41”8 Christian Zaiser (D) 1’42”4 Kai Borre Andersen (S) 1’42”6 Barry Veneman (S) 1’42”9 Maxine Berger (K) 1’43”6 (crash day three, day two time given)