DREAM START FOR LLOYDS BRITISH DUCATI The Lloyds British Ducati Supersport Team had a dream start to the season with a race win at the first round at a wet and windy Brands Hatch Indy circuit on Sunday 26th March. After 3 weeks testing in 27 degrees of sunshine in Spain, the conditions at Brands Hatch were quite a contrast, but to be expected. During Friday free practice, both Martin Jessopp and Stuart Easton used their track time to acclimatise themselves to the conditions, but Martin was caught out with a lack of grip and had a huge high-side coming out of clearways. Battered and bruised he went in to Saturday’s qualifying sessions and still managed to qualify within 1 second of Stuart, who was simply awesome after putting the Ducati 749R on pole position with the fastest time ever recorded for a Supersport bike of 1:47.168 seconds. Such is the competitiveness of the Championship; 1 second difference was enough to put Martin back to 17th on the grid, so it was a fantastic achievement when he brought his Ducati home in 14th place scoring 2 valuable points in the opening round of the season. Stuart Easton was back to his best throughout the weekend and after securing pole, he went on to put in the fastest lap of the race and win in convincing style. The back markers are always a problem on the short 47 second Indy circuit, but with Stuart’s new found focus they caused him little or no problems as he cut through them like a hot knife through butter. At one point he had a 4 second lead over his nearest rival, Cal Crutchlow, and went on to win the race by an unbelievable 3.2 seconds in front of Cal and 4.5 seconds ahead of Eugene Laverty on the Red Bull Honda. Stuart commentated after the race: “whilst we’re obviously very pleased with the result, it’s not come as a complete surprise. The whole Team have been working flat-out since Christmas to give me and Martin the best possible start to the season and we’ve now started where we left off at the end of last year. There are at least 6 guys out there who could win this Championship and, as Ken keeps reminding me, it’s going to be the one that wants it the most and I definitely want it more than ever before in my career. My plan for this year is to be on the podium at every round and if we can achieve that, we’ve got every chance of picking up the Championship trophy when we’re back here at Brands in October.” Martin was equally upbeat: “I could have done without the high-side on Friday, but I’ve gone round here nearly 2 seconds quicker than I’ve ever done before. The bikes have been fantastic all weekend, the conditions were very tricky, but I’ve got some points on the board and I know I can go much better on some of the tracks that are coming up so I can’t wait to get to Donington, which is a great circuit for the Ducati 749Rs. More, from a press release issued by WERA Motorcycle Roadracing: Big Turnout for WERA National Series Season Opener at Jennings GP Jennings, Fla. The WERA National Series began the 2006 season last weekend at Florida’s Jennings GP circuit, with over 300 sprint entries and 47 endurance teams for the two days of racing. Saturday’s six-hour WERA/Bridgestone National Endurance Series race saw 47 teams take the green flag. At the end of it, Vesrah Suzuki was in the lead by one lap. The Heavyweight Superbike class win also went to the team of John Jacobi, Tray Batey, Mark Junge and reserve rider Lee Acree, who did not ride this round. Red Star took the Mediumweight Superbike win, finishing second overall and two laps ahead of Heavyweight Superbike winners 5150 Racing. Ben Thompson and Brett Champagne have returned to Red Star, and are joined by former Army of Darkness rider Ben Walters this year. The Mediumweight Superstock class win went to Triple R Racing with Brian Stokes, Mike Reed and comeback kid Scott Harwell, who finished just 11.130 seconds ahead of class competitors Dalke Motorsports. Blue Ridge Performance took the Lightweight Superbike class victory. The competition was fierce during Sunday’s ten-lap WERA/Michelin National Challenge Series sprint races, and six riders took home hard-earned trophies in the expert class. The weekend also marked the introduction of qualifying on Friday for the Expert Superstock and Formula 1 classes. Robert Jensen proved that he knows how to handle a 1000cc motorcycle, winning both Open Superstock and Formula 1. Rising star Josh Herrin’s performance is once again the benchmark for the 600 classes thanks to his wins in both 600 Superstock and 600 Superbike. Jeff Walker was the only other expert rider to earn two victories, winning both Lightweight Twins Superstock and Formula 2. Opie Caylor was victorious in 750 Superstock after starting the race on the pole. Jensen came within five seconds of Caylor despite missing qualifying and having to start from the back of the grid. Taylor Knapp got his first Heavyweight Twins Superstock victory, finishing just 0.188 second ahead of defending champion Tray Batey. Keith Marshall built up a lead and held onto it to win 750 Superbike. In the novice classes, only one rider was able to take multiple wins, and Seth Starnes dominated the field with four of them. His victories came in Open Superstock, 750 Superstock, 600 Superbike and 750 Superbike. Isinovy Calvo won 600 Superstock by nearly two seconds. In the twins classes, Blake Dircks won Heavyweight Twins Superstock and Chris Slay was at the front of the Lightweight Twins Superstock field. Miles Thornton won Formula 2. The WERA National Series has just two weeks before round two gets underway at Talladega Gran Prix Raceway from April 7-9. More information about WERA can be found online at www.WERA.com, including a link to complete race results. More, from a press release issued by Dalke Motorsports: Dalke Motorsports leads off with a solid start for a 2006 title defense in the opening round of the WERA National Endurance Series at Jennings GP, Jennings, Florida. The team featured returning riders Brian Dalke (Team Owner), Wrenn Smith, Giovanni Rojas, Josh Smith-Moore and newcomer Daniel Parkerson. The team decided to use last year’s Championship winning 2005 Suzuki GSXR600 and left the new 2006 Suzuki in the trailer because of it’s late arrival and lack of development time. Team riders Brian Dalke, Giovanni Rojas and Wrenn Smith split two Friday practice groups to shake out the cobwebs from the off season and get the bike dialed in for the race. After consultation with Thermosman Suspension’s Mike Fitzgerald the team made some changes to the rear shock so the bike would steer better and finish the turn better. With that done, Saturday morning practice was used to get Josh Smith-Moore some time on the bike and the track. Dalke Motorsports finished ahead of the anticipated season regulars and put valuable points in the bank for their 2006 Middleweight Superstock title defense last weekend. The 6 hour season opener at Jennings Raceway offered pleasant sunny weather in sharp contrast to last year’s rain, flooding and hail. Unfortunately the race was marred by a near record number of red flags causing Dalke’s lead to evaporate and allowing the Triple-R team to take the lead late in the race. Dalke’s Giovanni Rojas put the team into a solid lead during the first hour. After a flawless pit stop Brian Dalke took over and held the lead over the charging Triple R team of Brain Stokes, Scott Harwell and Mark Reed. With the second red flag of the day, late in Brian’s stint he decided to let Wrenn take the restart and run till the fuel light came on, or the rear tire gave out. Wrenn managed to stay in the lead until the fuel light came on and came in for tires and fuel. The crew worked a perfect pit stop, fueling the bike and changing both front & rear tires in less than 1min 45seconds and putting Wrenn back out just behind Triple R’s Scott Harwell. After another red flag restart Wrenn dogged Harwell through the remainder of his stint and came in to give the reins to Josh Smith-Moore. Another great pit stop and Josh was able to retake the lead. Josh worked hard to maintain the lead but Triple R’s Brian Stokes was just a little too quick and passed Josh just before the final red flag of the day. With a few minutes to regroup and work out the strategy, Crew Chief Richard Smith-Moore put Giovanni back on the bike for the 30 minute dash to the end. ‘Gio’ swapped the lead back and forth with the Triple-R bike in an exciting battle during the final minutes. When the checkered flag flew the Dalke bike was in a solid second position in class, just 11 seconds off the lead bike. This season opener podium finish leaves Dalke Motorsports in a strong position for the Championship points battle. Dalke Motorsports also announces their new website at www.dalkemotorsports.com .

Rizla Suzuki will travel to the Guadix circuit in southern Spain for a two-day test session before prior to the second round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park on April 9th. After a pre-season test programme blighted by wet and cold weather, the move to Guadix, near Malaga on the south coast of Spain, is to try and ensure dry miles of testing. The 3km long circuit provides a mixture of fast, slow and multiple corners as well as a 750m straight which makes it ideal for Shane Byrne and James Haydon to test their GSX-R1000s to the limit. Rizla Suzuki Team Manager Robert Wicks said: “We came away from the opening round of the series knowing we have a competitive bike and the potential to challenge at the front with both riders. What we need now is time and laps on the bikes so both riders can go to Donington Park with increased confidence.”

TELEVISION AUDIENCES ROCKET FOR MotoGP OPENER Leading broadcasters from around the world have reported excellent audience data for their coverage of the opening round of the MotoGP World Championship at Jerez on Sunday. The leading figures came, not surprisingly, from Italy, where an impressive 6,974,000 viewers enjoyed a memorable victory for a national rider and factory in Loris Capirossi and Ducati through the Mediaset network (Italia 1), representing a 34.68% share. Interest was even higher in Spain, where a stunning MotoGP debut from Dani Pedrosa helped to secure an audience share of 44.20% for Televisión Española (TVE) up more than 6% on the famous Rossi-Gibernau duel from last season with an average of 48.31% during the race. Home victories for Álvaro Bautista and Jorge Lorenzo in 125cc and 250cc no doubt stoked the interest of the Spanish fans as up to 5,579,000 viewers tuned in to live action from Jerez, representing a peak share of 50.3% and adding to a record race-day crowd of 131,162 at the track itself. In the UK viewing figures peaked at 1,300,000 on BBC2, representing a 30% rise on last year’s average for all races and a 3% rise on average audience share, which registered at 15.1%. Elsewhere, Austrian network ATV+ doubled their audience share from the same race last season whilst in Finland increased coverage through Nelonen (Channel Four Finland) secured an 18% share for the MotoGP race. Interest also continues to grow in Ireland, where RTE claimed a 12.4% share, whilst audience share on Greece’s ET3 channel rocketed from their usual average of 2.3% to peak at an incredible 11.2%. This data reflects the massive interest in the 2006 MotoGP World Championship, with fans across the globe eagerly awaiting the next round, which takes place in Doha on Saturday April 10th at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar.

Mat Mladin and Jason DiSalvo undercut existing lap records for the AMA Superbike and Formula Xtreme classes, respectively, during AMA team testing Tuesday at Barber Motorsports Park, in Birmingham, Alabama. Riding his Dunlop-equipped Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000, Mladin recorded a 1:24.79, well under his Superbike lap record from 2005, 1:25.047. Jason DiSalvo, riding his Dunlop-fitted Yamaha YZF-R6, turned a 1:27.5 lap time around the 2.3-mile, 16-turn road course, faster than Miguel Duhamel’s one-year-old lap record of 1:27.746. DiSalvo was also the fastest rider in the Superstock division, turning a 1:26.53 on his Dunlop-backed Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 LE, while Roger Hayden topped all Supersport testers with a 1:28.3 on his factory Kawasaki ZX-6RR. Rain kept the riders off the track until approximately noon local time. The only rider known to have crashed during the test was Jake Zemke, who fell off his American Honda CBR1000RR Superbike in turn nine. Zemke was seen riding the bike back to the pits. The next multi-team AMA test is scheduled for early-April at the new Miller Motorsports Park, in Tooele, Utah. Unofficial Test Lap Times: Superbike (current lap record 1:25.047, Mat Mladin, 2005): 1. Mat Mladin (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:24.79 2. Ben Spies (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:25.3 3. Jake Zemke (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:25.65 4. Neil Hodgson (Duc 999F06), 1:25.7/Tommy Hayden (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:25.7 6. Roger Hayden (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:26.0 7. Aaron Yates (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:26.2 8. Miguel Duhamel (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:26.27 9. Ben Bostrom (Duc 999F06), 1:26.5 10. Larry Pegram (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:27.2 11. John Haner (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:27.6 12. Jason Pridmore (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:28.4 Superstock (current lap record, 1:25.832, Jamie Hacking, 2005): 1. Jason DiSalvo (Yam YZF-R1 LE), 1:26.53 2. Jamie Hacking (Yam YZF-R1 LE), 1:26.8 3. Aaron Yates (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:26.9 4. Aaron Gobert (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:27.2 5. Geoff May (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:27.23 6. Damon Buckmaster (Kaw ZX-10R), 1:27.6 7. Steve Rapp (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:27.7 8. Jason Pridmore (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:27.8 9. TIE, Jake Holden (Suz GSX-R1000)/Eric Bostrom (Yam YZF-R1 LE), 1:27.9 11. Josh Hayes (Hon CBR1000RR), 1:27.92 12. Marty Craggill (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:28.00 13. Chris Ulrich (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:28.31 14. Matt Lynn (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:28.6 15. Robertino Pietri (Suz GSX-R1000), 1:30.09 Formula Xtreme (current lap record, 1:27.746, Miguel Duhamel, 2005): 1. Jason DiSalvo (Yam YZF-R6), 1:27.5 2. Aaron Gobert (Hon CBR600RR), 1:28.0 3. Josh Hayes (Hon CBR600RR), 1:28.49 4. Kurtis Roberts (Suz GSX-R600), 1:28.5 5. Eric Bostrom (Yam YZF-R6), 1:28.8 Supersport (current lap record, 1:27.635, Tommy Hayden, 2004): 1. Roger Hayden (Kaw ZX-6RR), 1:28.3 2. Jamie Hacking (Yam YZF-R6), 1:28.41 3. Ben Spies (Suz GSX-R600), 1:28.5 4. Geoff May (Suz GSX-R600), 1:29.0 5. Damon Buckmaster (Kaw ZX-6RR), 1:29.9 6. Ryan Elleby (Hon CBR600RR), 1:30.4 7. Shea Fouchek (Suz GSX-R600), 1:33.04 Ben Attard (Kaw ZX-6RR), N.A.

Riders Choice and Suzuki Canada will team up in 2006 to back Mississauga’s Matt McBride in the Parts Canada Superbike Championship. McBride is back where he started his racing career on Suzuki equipment having won the 2001 Suzuki SV650 Cup championship at the age of 16. “I’m delighted to have what I believe will be the bike to beat this year in both the Superbike and Sportbike classes” said the 21 year old racer. Matt has been training hard for the upcoming Parts Canada Superbike Championship, which kicks off on Victoria Day Weekend (May 19-21) at Shannonville Motorsport Park. McBride will pilot a 2006 Suzuki GSX-R 1000 Superbike that’s beingprepared by Scott Miller of Fast Company and a 2006 GSX-R 600 in the Hindle Exhaust Pro 600 Sportbike class that will be prepped by Ryan Gill of Riders Choice.

Three-time AMA Champion and former MotoGP racer Kurtis Roberts is currently testing a Pirelli-shod Team M4 EMGO Suzuki GSX-R600 at Barber Motorsports Park, in Birmingham, Alabama, and may race with the team in the next two rounds of the AMA Formula Xtreme series, at Barber and California Speedway. “I had been just chilling out,” Roberts told Roadracingworld.com late Monday. “I didn’t like any of the offers proposed to me (for 2006), so I said no. I was going to do some testing and some things, then this came up.” Roberts’ opportunity with Team M4 EMGO Suzuki opened up when the team’s regular rider Michael Barnes crashed and suffered a knee injury during the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway. With Barnes’ out of action for upcoming tests and his fitness questionable for the next two rounds of the Formula Xtreme series, Team M4 EMGO Suzuki called Roberts in. “We’re taking it step-by-step,” said Roberts. “I might do Alabama and California Speedway for ‘Barney.’ I might not. We’re going to talk about that on Wednesday and Thursday. As long as I feel we can go good and run up front, then maybe we’ll give it a go. But I don’t like to ride around with no chance to win. I’ve had to do that too much lately.” Asked how things had gone Monday, Roberts said, “It’s going well, so far. It was just my first day on the thing. The fastest FX lap around here is a 1:28.4, and I did a 1:28.9. And I haven’t ridden a road race bike since the Valencia GP last year. But the bike is good to start with, and the tires seem to work pretty good. “I’ve always raced against these guys (Team M4 EMGO Suzuki), and from perspective, they’ve looked good. The bikes are good, and the team has a good structure and work ethic. And I’ve known Keith Perry for a while and always wanted to work with him.”

BAYLISS (DUCATI XEROX TEAM) KEEPS UP PRESSURE ON HIS RIVALS WITH QUICKEST TIME ON DAY 2 OF VALENCIA TEST Valencia (Spain), Tuesday 28 March: Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox Team) kept up the pressure on his championship rivals with quickest time on the second day of the three-day test session organized by FG Sport at Valencia. The 36-year-old Australian, who won on home territory three weeks ago to head the points table, shaved a further chunk off yesterday’s mark on his Xerox-backed Ducati 999F06 to end the second day with a time of 1m34.987s, set during the morning session. His closest rival, fellow Aussie Troy Corser (Suzuki) was again left in second place, a full half-a-second down on the former world champion. Bayliss crashed in the final minutes of the afternoon session while trying out a new front tyre but was unscathed. “It went pretty good again today” commented Bayliss. “The track was not bad this morning and I did a 34m90s which was OK. In the afternoon I did a full race simulation in similar times to last year but it was hot and windy out there. I had a bit of a crash at the end when I was doing some quick laps on a soft front tyre and lost the front on some oil, but I’m OK. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow morning when I can improve my time but the most important thing is to do a long-run in the afternoon in preparation for the race here in April.” His 24-year-old Italian team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi, sixth after the first day, knocked three-tenths off his time but slipped down one place in the overall standings behind Chris Walker ((Kawasaki), Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) and Fonsi Nieto (Kawasaki). “I tried a number of different front tyres today and we managed to find a setting that was satisfactory” declared Lanzi. “The test today was in any case positive because I was able to lap consistently in the 1m36s. Tomorrow we’ll do a race simulation and I am sure that I’ll go well.” OVERALL TIMES: 1. Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m34.987s; 2. Corser (Suzuki) 1m35.571s; 3. Haga (Yamaha) 1m35.618s; 4. Walker (Kawasaki) 1m35.827s; 5. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m35.899s; 6. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1m35.974s; 7. Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m36.009s; 8. Muggeridge (Honda) 1m36.034s; 9. Xaus (Ducati) 1m36.175s; 10. Pitt (Yamaha) 1m36.215s; etc. More, from a press release issued by Winston Ten Kate Honda: FINE WEATHER ALLOWS ANOTHER GOOD DAY OF TESTING AT VALENCIA The second day of the Valencia SBK tests proved to be not as hot as day one, but still provided a good platform for the World Superbike riders to get down to work. A light wind characterized the day but without disturbing the work in progress on track too much. For the Supersport boys, Charpentier and Sofuoglu, it was another day in front of everybody while real improvements were made by Karl and James, on the Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RRs. Tomorrow is the final day of testing before the restart of the season in Valencia on April 23, where James and Sebastien will try to attain and maintain the lead in their respective World championships. Ronald Ten Kate Winston Ten Kate Honda Team Manager “On the Superbike side of things we are still facing some problems to find a good set up around here. Like I said yesterday we are testing to learn more and more about this year’s machinery. James has some chattering problems at the moment, but Karl Muggeridge is not encountering this. Karl is improving step by step. I think tomorrow we will be able to solve the chatter and improve the lap times with James. On the Supersport side of things, this morning we were focussing a lot to put in some fast lap times while this afternoon we ran with a full race configuration, a lot of fuel in the tank and that was going nicely again. I think tomorrow morning will be a good time to register some fast laps and I guess we’ll see what happens.” James Toseland – SBK Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (12th position 57 laps Fastest lap 1’36.323) “A bit of frustration today for me. We have been troubling to cure the bigger problem which is the chattering but in part we solved some other smaller problems. Everything we tried has not taken away the chattering completely but I am sure tomorrow we’ll make it all work like we have done in the last two races. If we look at the times we can see that we are not too far from the others, so as soon as we find our best settings we’ll be able to fight with the fastest. Tomorrow we will try some long runs and some qualifying tyres to understand what situation we’ll be in for the third round of the season, in three weeks time.” Karl Muggeridge – SBK Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (8th position 65 laps Fastest lap 1’36.034) “The time has gotten better on the second bike but bike one had some problems. This morning I hurt my back somehow and it surely didn’t help me through the afternoon session. Also, the weather wasn’t the best this afternoon, due to a quite strong wind, but apart from these things I can consider myself satisfied with the work we did today. Tomorrow we’ll concentrate on pushing the bike a bit more and try some long runs. We’ll also try some qualifying tyres that Pirelli will provide us with.” Sebastien Charpentier WSS Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (1st position 38 laps Fastest lap 1’37.437) “This morning gave us a nice session. It has been a good day overall, the weather was beautiful for testing and I hope for a similar weather conditions for the race at the end of April. There was a bit of wind but it didn’t cause any problems. The bike is really good and the team organization is also really good, even if my chief mechanic is not here. For the moment we are ready and the situation in general is very good. For tomorrow’s sessions I will look for a fast lap time and try a new rear tyre.” Kenan Sofuoglu WSS Winston Ten Kate Honda Rider (2nd position 42 laps Fastest lap 1’38.352) “We tried many things but I couldn’t achieve what I wanted. As I said yesterday, for me second position is OK but I just want to try to close down the gap a bit to Sebastien, who is incredibly fast. For tomorrow I will try many other settings because I feel I can improve my fastest lap time. Hopefully things will go better and, if the weather will allow us, we’ll improve our times.” More, from a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing: Gain in Spain for FPR The second day of the Superbike World Championship official test at Valencia, Spain, today brought further encouragement for Foggy PETRONAS Racing. Both Steve Martin and Craig Jones were able to make in-roads into their best laps of yesterday, while also testing new engine specifications. Steve finished the morning session in 10th place, having shaved more than half a second off yesterday’s best lap. However, an afternoon of frustrating technical hitches prevented further progress for the Australian and he slipped to 13th in the standings. Superbike debutant Craig sliced more than 1.5 seconds off his best lap around the tight and twisty circuit, while also experimenting with new stages of engine development. Steve said: “The morning session was pretty positive and I managed to lap a lot quicker than last year. Tomorrow I need to improve the handling of the bike with the new specification camshaft, as I am having problems wheelying out of the corners, so we will change the weight distribution and ride heights. I want to do a long run on race tyres tomorrow and then put some qualifiers in, as some of the other riders have done today. But when it comes to the race we already know that it is going to be so tight as not to be funny!” Craig said: “We made a lot of progress today and I was able to take a big chunk out of my time. If I can keep on doing that tomorrow I will end up with a decent time. A lot of the improvement is coming from just riding the bike and learning the track but I think I can still find a lot of time in the set-up of the bike. I am looking forward to going out in the morning and using the experience I have gained today to go quicker straight away.” Second day times, Superbike World Championship official test, Valencia, Spain: 1 Bayliss 1:34.987; 2 Corser 1:35.571; 3 Haga 1:35.618; 4 Walker 1:35.827; 5 Kagayama 1:35.899; 6 Nieto 1:35.974; 7 Lanzi 1:36.009; 8 Muggeridge 1:36.034; 9 Xaus 1:36.175; 10 Pitt 1:36.215; 13 Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:36.413; 28 Jones (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:38.759 More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra continued their extensive work testing different components and a variety of settings at Valencia in Spain today and made good progress. Despite not using any qualifying tyres today, Troy Corser finished second quickest, just half a second or so behind Troy Bayliss (Ducati). Yukio Kagayama ended fifth quickest and Alstare Engineering Corona Extra rider Fabien Foret posted the 16th fastest time as he continued his steep Superbike learning curve. Foret was only a second behind Corser – an indication that the Frenchman is getting to grips with his life in Superbike. Strong winds hindered today’s tests, but Kagayama was the only rider claiming not to have been affected by them in the afternoon session. Troy Corser – 1:35.571: “So far the two days have gone pretty well and we’ve tested a variety of stuff including different clutch components, forks, rear shocks and other stuff. These are the kind of things we never get a real chance to try out during a race weekend, so these three days are giving us a lot of time to try things and evaluate them. All the info should help improve what is already a good package. “Today was a bit windy and I had to be careful exiting turns one and also going over the hill before the last two turns. It would’ve pretty easy to crash through there so I made sure I took it carefully. It was hotter in the afternoon and I felt that the tyres didn’t work as well as the morning when it was a bit cooler. For me, generally, the Pirellis are like that and it’s something to be aware off – especially in a race. “My little finger of my right hand has been a little stiff since the fall at Phillip Island and it’s possible that it may have a greenstick fracture. It’s a little bit sore when I pull my gloves on, but not bad enough to affect me on the track. Tomorrow we’ve got more different things to try and by the end we should have a lot of useful information to study.” Yukio Kagayama – 1:35.889: “I think the tests have gone well so far. I had a little crash yesterday, but no damage – well not to me anyway! Sorry to the mechanics though, because I gave them extra work! Here we have been trying many different things; trying to get a good setting for the bike so that when we come here for the race in one month or so, we can start in a good position. We had some clutch problems in Qatar, so this is one area where we have been working on and hope to have a good solution by the end of tomorrow. “Many riders said they had problems with the wind and change of temperature this afternoon, but for me there was no big difference! Maybe the tyres do not work as well when it is hotter, but I didn’t notice it so much. I’m happy with the progress we have made so far and hope to make further progress tomorrow.” Fabien Foret – 1:36.577: “I am happy because I am finally beginning to enjoy riding my bike. When I first jumped on it, I think I was trying to ride it a bit like I rode in Supersport. But yesterday and today it is beginning to feel like my bike and I am starting to have fun with it. You can ride a Supersport bike fast even if the set-up is not perfect, but you can’t do that with a Superbike because there are so many more variables. Understanding them takes time and I am learning as fast as I can. Riding the first two rounds of the championship was a good experience, but it is good to come here with no pressure and try different things. I think we are making good progress now and I am hoping it continues tomorrow.” Best lap times (after two days):1 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1:34.987, 2 Troy Corser (Aus-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:35.571, 3 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1:35.618, 4 Walker (GB-Kawasaki) 1:35.827, 5 Yukio Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 1:35.889, 6 Nieto (E-Kawasaki) 1:35.974, 7 Lanzi (I-Ducati) 1:36.009, 8 Muggeridge (Aus-Honda) 1:36.034, 9 Xaus (E-Ducati) 1:36.175, 10 Pitt (Aus-Yamaha) 1:36.215. 16 Fabien Foret (F-Alstare Engineering Corona Extra) 1:36.577.

Youngy searches for more power after promising Brands start PAUL YOUNG has been buoyed by the promise showed by his British-built Triumph Daytona 675 at the first round of the British Supersport Championship. At the weekend the Hinckley-based Aussie put the under-developed three-cylinder machine 19th on the grid and was in the points in the race before being pushed wide at Paddock and finishing 17th. Now Youngy is developing the motor of his second machine to make more power, following the rock-solid reliability shown over the weekend by his number one machine. He said: “The grunt we have with this bike is superb. It will stay with anything off the corners, we just need to work on the top-end. That’s the next task.” Despite developing the bike without any major help from the factory, the bike performed well on its first outing. “I got an average start from 19th on the grid and was passing someone every lap until I got into the points. That was what I was hoping for from the first race, really. Unfortunately, I got to the front of the pack and four of us went into Paddock Hill Bend together and I got pushed wide. I had the thing on full lock just to get around the corner. I spent most of the rest of the race making up places again but by the time I’d caught the group the race was red-flagged after Rob Frost’s accident.” Despite finishing out of the points, Youngy is happy with the triple’s performance. “We had two days testing with the bike before Brands and considering this machine has never been raced before and we’re developing it, we were going into the race pretty green, really. Through the course of the weekend we changed the shock valving four times, including between warm-up and the race which was a bit of a risk, but it was better for the race. The big shock was when I volunteered the bike to be weighed. It was 155 kilos dry, which is 10 kilos under the limit for triples! The limit for four-cylinder bikes is 162 kilos.” Now Paul is working flat-out to ensure that the second machine has more power to be more competitive with the four and two cylinder machines out there. “I couldn’t believe speed of some bikes out there,” said Youngy. “The level of machinery in Supersport is getting better and better. A lot of people are buying Ten Kate customer engines, or teams have direct factory involvement. I’m proud of how close we were from the first race. It’s early days and there’s a lot to come from the bike and me.” British Supersport round 1 results. Brands Hatch, March 26th 1 – Stuart Easton – Ducati – Lloyds British Ducati – 16:59.878 2 – Cal Crutchlow – Honda -Northpoint Ekerold Honda – 17:03.096 3 – Eugene Laverty – Honda – Red Bull Honda – 17:04.412 4 – Pere Riba – Kawasaki-MSS Discovery Racing – 17:07.171 5 – Leon Camier – Honda -Northpoint Ekerold Honda – 17:07.450 6 – Jamie Robinson – Honda – Bykerbabe.com/JRM – 17:08.809 7 – Jay Vincent – Honda – Padgetts Motorcycles – 17:09.175 8 – Chris Burns – Yamaha – AIM Racing – 17:09.812 9 – Tom Sykes – Suzuki – TAS Suzuki – 17:17.837 10 – Ian Lowry – Suzuki – TAS Suzuki – 17:18.015 11 – Kieran Murphy – Kawasaki-MSS Discovery Racing – 17:20.766 12 – Sam Owens – Honda – Premier Motorsport – 17:23.040 13 – Joe Dickinson – Honda – GMP Racing Ltd – 17:23.197 14 – Martin Jessop – Ducati – Lloyds British Ducati – 17:30.081 15 – Tommy Bridewell – Suzuki – Vivaldi Racing – 17:30.423 17 – Paul YOUNG – Triumph – Paul Young Racing – 17:32.938 Next round: Donington Park, April 9th,