crash.net home
crash.net home
» Register or Sign-In    Email:   Password:


MENU

BSB
Editorial
Columns
Media
Interactive





Add to Google
»

Home

»

British Superbikes

»

News Archive

»

Rizlas under lap record at Al Carras.

Tom Sykes – Rizla Suzuki.

British Superbikes » Rizlas under lap record at Al Carras.

Friday, 8th February 2008

Rizla Suzuki riders Tom Sykes and Atsushi Watanabe both ducked under the lap record at the Al Carras circuit in Spain during the team's third and final day of its private pre-season test.

Comment on this Story
The pair left the track with Sykes having set a new unofficial lap record while 2008 BSB rookie Watanabe was 0.47secs behind.

Sykes more than made up for the electrical gremlins, which had hit his track time the day before, by completing a total of 80 laps on the final day. The Englishman concentrated on chassis geometry and delivering consistently fast laps.

"It has been a good test, I'm very happy," said Sykes. "We have got some good base settings now to work from. I've got plenty of laps under my belt; now I need a rest and then I'll be excited and ready to go for the next test. I'm really enjoying the atmosphere in the team and I'm enjoying my Rizla Suzuki GSX-R1000."

Advertisement

Watanabe worked on various set-up combinations in order to learn as much about his machine as possible.

"This track is very different to Calafat and to Japanese tracks and it took some time to get used to," he said after his 69 laps. "After the first day I was comfortable and the end times were good. I'm happy with my Rizla Suzuki. I come to the UK in late February and look forward to my first visit to UK tracks with John Reynolds as he will help me learn."

"The team worked really hard to get the Pirelli tyres working on the abrasive track surface," revealed team manager Jack Valentine. "This will stand by us as we prepare to go to the official Pirelli test at Almeria which has a similar surface.

"We've got a good feel for things and just need to keep tweaking the package," he continued. "I'm looking forward to getting to Almeria so we can get our hands on race rubber.

"It will also be good to see where we stand against our competitors as there will be other teams there. I'm really pleased with how this test has gone and if we had stayed here for another day both guys would have dropped their lap times even further," he claimed.
Page 1 of 1
Comment on this Story
AddThis Feed Button
Related Images
Tom Sykes – Rizla Suzuki.
[Top of Article]

Latest News Stories

Related Audio

Event Results

Event Reports