Kawasaki’s World Superbike team concluded a three-day test session at Valencia yesterday and Joan Lascorz and Tom Sykes were among the several Kawasaki riders present preparing for the upcoming 2012 season.
Both riders posted strong laps and Sykes, using race tyres, set a best lap of 1’33.
1, which is a tenth or so faster than the best Superpole lap ever recorded at the former WSBK venue that was dropped from the calendar at the end of the 2010 season.
The team worked on suspension, linkages, electronics, chassis geometry and the latest ride-by-wire system under the watchful eye of several Japanese engineers confirming that Kawasaki is indeed taking a more active role in WSBK racing and in the team.
Once the test ban (December 1st to January 15th) is lifted the team will head to the Almeria race track in Spain for further tests before moving to Australia for the first official 2012 test ahead of the first round of the 2012 season that starts February 26th at Phillip Island.
Tom Sykes: “The tests went well and we ended up doing a 1’33.
1 lap time on a race tyre.
We have worked through a lot of different things, we are working well in the garage and I am relaxed.
It is no secret that when I’m relaxed I work my best.
We have had some good weather – consistent weather – in Valencia and that made it better to work through all we needed to do.
We have a new electronics package and found a better overall machine balance for me.
We also went well at Aragon even though we only really had half a good day there, because of weather and some car tyre rubber laid on the track surface.
Once the conditions improved it took us only four outings of four laps each to beat the kind of lap times I set at the race last summer.
Right now we are on a package that we have not changed so much between the two tests.
We have a fairly good base setting that works for race distance and, when we put new tyres in, for a fast lap time as well.
I think we have come a long way even since the post-season Portimao test.
The bike tells me what it is doing quite a lot better than before, and the improved feedback tells me when I am arriving at the limit.
”Joan Lascorz: “I am very happy the way the test went because I set good lap times and I was very happy with the performance of the bike and the team.
We made a lot of changes to the bike, changed a lot of general settings and worked on the suspension.
Some are now much different from last year.
All the staff worked well together again.
I think I learned most from this test in terms of finding out more about our latest machine settings and then finding a more consistent good pace.
These things should allow us to challenge closer to the top in 2012.
Tom was very fast and we both worked well with race tyres.
”