World Superbike - P.I. testing

[MadKaw]

Second day of SBK testing at Phillip Island
Update: February 17, 2009, 12.25 PM ET Comment Email Print



The countdown has begun for the start of the 2009 Superbike season, with the teams already hard at work at Phillip Island, where the season gets underway on March 1. The first to arrive were Aprilia who have three test days planned from Monday 16 to Wednesday 18, together with the factory Kawasaki team, Honda Stiggy and Honda Althea. On Saturday and Sunday it will be the turn of Ducati, Yamaha, Bmw, Suzuki and Honda Ten Kate.

In their last test at Portimao Aprilia had a few teething problems but these now appear to have been resolved. On the second day Shinya Nakano set a quickest time of 1'33"1, just six tenths away from the best time set by 2008 Australian Round double winner Troy Bayliss. The same time was also recorded by the surprising Règis Laconi (photo), who has switched from Kawasaki this year to a private DFX Ducati 1098RS.

The Frenchman was on the pace right out of the box, and was also quick over the distance. Max Biaggi, quickest on Monday, today had a crash at the Honda curve while trying to improve his time of 1'33"7. The Italian was unhurt, but his bike suffered slight damage.

Britain's Leon Haslam began his SBK season in the Honda Stiggy team with a promising 1'34"1, while the two factory Kawasakis of Makoto Tamada (1'34"9) and Broc Parkes (1'35"4) were slightly off the pace, their ZX10-R F9 machines still in need of further development.

Supersport testing has also been getting underway. Today there were four riders out on the track, the quickest being Aussie Anthony West (Honda Stiggy) in 1'36"2 ahead of his team-mate Gianluca Vizziello (1'36"7). Good times were also recorded by the two new Honda Althea riders: Mark Aitchison set a time of 1'36"7, Matthieu Lagrive 1'36"9. The official Supersport record is 1'34"976, set by Sèbastien Charpentier (Honda Ten Kate) in the 2007 race.

[Wattie]

cool im only like 12 seconds off the pace

[Six Addict]

good to see west fastest in supersport so far, lets wait and see what lascorz can do

what times do the ausie superbikes do???

[Blurr]

whilst the Kawa superbikes remain underpowered they will never perform at a fast track like PI

[MadKaw]

The Aussie superbikes do about 1.33 there so not too far from the WSB times.

Biaggi goes quickest in Phillip Island testing
Update: February 18, 2009, 13.45 PM ET Comment Email Print



Max Biaggi (Aprilia) set the quickest time in the Superbike test session that concluded today at Phillip Island. With just ten days to go before the start of the season, the Italian champion and the RSV4 have now reached a competitive level and could be amongst the front-runners at the opening round.

After his crash on day 2, Biaggi completed 71 laps today, notching up a best time of 1 minute 32.59 seconds, just eight-hundredths of a second off Troy Bayliss's quickest race lap in 2008 on a Ducati.

"These three days have been very profitable", declared a not entirely satisfied Biaggi. "We completed every test possible with all the material available, in every condition and we know exactly the problems we are facing. Now is the time to make some important modifications, obviously not for the next race because that's impossible, but shortly after".

On the other RSV4 Shinya Nakano set a time of 1m32.72s, the Japanese rider today suffering a harmless crash. Another rider who crashed out today was the surprise of these tests, Règis Laconi, on a private DFX Ducati 1098RS. The French rider, who powered to an impressive 1m32.60s, fractured the ring finger of his left hand and after going to hospital for a check, resumed testing in the afternoon on his 1098, which in the meantime had been repaired in record time.

A major surprise came from Broc Parkes who got down to a time of 1m32.90s on his Kawasaki ZX10R F09 machine: the Japanese manufacturer, present in Australia with nine engineers from the racing division, has taken full control of the situation and the results appear to be arriving sooner than expected.
The test was also positive for the Honda Stiggy team, which is making its WSBK debut this year. Leon Haslam set a time of 1m33.2s, with Roberto Rolfo close behind on 1m33.5s: the Italian covered almost 200 laps at Phillip Island and looks to have recovered from the recent shoulder injury that conditioned his form at the Portimao test.

The quickest of the four Supersport riders at Phillip Island was Australian Anthony West (Honda Stiggy) in 1m35.9s, while Gianluca Vizziello crashed out.

The final test session at Phillip Island takes place this Saturday and Sunday, with official teams from Ducati (Haga-Fabrizio), BMW (Corser-Xaus), Suzuki Alstare (Neukirchner-Kagayama), Honda Ten Kate (Checa-Kiyonari-Rea) and Yamaha (Spies-Sykes) in action.

Unofficial times:

Superbike: 1. Biaggi (Aprilia) 1'32"59 (71 laps); 2. Laconi (Ducati) 1'32"60 (62); 3. Nakano (Aprilia) 1'32"72 (68); 4. Parkes (Kawasaki) 1'32"90 (70); 5. Haslam (Honda) 1'33"20 (65); 6. Hill (Honda) 1'33"30 (55); 7. Rolfo (Honda) 1'33"50 (95); 8. Tamada (Kawasaki) 1'33"90 (80).

Supersport: 1. West (Honda) 1'35"90; 2. Lagrive (Honda) 1'36"00; 3. Aitchison (Honda) 1'36"00; 4. Vizziello (Honda) 1'36"70.

[MickLC]

The Bug is quick in the Superbikes and and Westy is quick in the Supersports even though he's on a Honda....sweet

[MadKaw]

Gunna have to get into high 1.31's to be at the front in superbikes me thinks...
Bloody good times from Broc and the Kwaka considering the amount of time he's had on it... he'll only get quicker..

[Frank]

he'll only get quicker..

We can only hope

[Six Addict]

bugger me, everyone raving about BMWs debut... everyone forgot about arpilia!!!

oh and nakkers got third

[browserzx10]

None of the supers have come close to a !.31 in testing so far at phillip island, good signs for kawasaki though

[Colette]

Looks like it's shaping up to be an exciting few days!
Supers update