Erv Kanemoto’s Bridgestone tire development team is testing at Catalunya, Spain today, March 16, the middle day of a three-day session.

Riders Shinichi Itoh and Nobuatsu Aoki are hard at it in Bridgestone’s drive to build competitive tires in time for the 2002 Grand Prix season. The team tested at Jerez February 11-13 and has many more tests already scheduled throughout Europe.

Itoh and Aoki are testing the tires NSR500 Honda V-4 two-strokes, but the goal is to develop tires suitable for use on 990cc four-stroke Grand Prix racebikes, which will be allowed in what is now the 500cc Grand Prix World Championship starting next year. Honda has built and is testing a V-5 for the series, while Yamaha has built and is testing an Inline Four.