There may have only been one day of action at Kyalami so far, but some squeezed enough drama into it to last all three days of the test.
First of all this was the first group test of all the new 2009 World Superbike machines together – the Aprilia, BMW, Suzuki and Yamaha offerings on show today are all new for 2009. We also had Honda (World Superbike and World Supersport) versions, but we did not have the new official Kawasaki team, as they are still making preparations back in Europe and will join in the official FGSport tests at Portimao in January.
For the riders on show the action started early, with a 9 a.m. track opening time, launching a session that ran all day until 5 p.m., with no lunch break and an open track – except for the many red flags. It all started too early for Noriyuki Haga and Jonathan Rea, as they collided before half an hour had been run, with Haga saying that Rea had T-boned him from behind under braking while Rea thought Haga was not at full pace and suddenly pulled across his path as he tried to pass.
Soon after there was a red flag at turn seven because of deflated air fence, which had wilted in the hot sun.
Haga was involved in a further two red-flag incidents, when he lost the front in one area – the rear in another. Beaten and bruised, he had a remarkable first day for his new team, ending up fourth on the timesheets, but running through three sets of bodywork.
With his teammate, existing Ducati Xerox rider Michel Fabrizio, running strongly to post the best time of 1:41.204, it was a day of two halves and no quarter for the Ducati factory lads – Haga and Fabrizio.
Just .395 of a second behind Fabrizio came the 2009 Yamaha of Ben Spies, learning this World Superbike game very quickly, on an engine that is still not at full 2009 spec yet. His teammate Tom Sykes had a terrible time, suffering from a virus or other type of infection and only posting 16 laps as he tried but failed to overcome it in the heat and altitude of Kyalami. He was way down, in the 1?:6s before he decided to stop and recover properly in readiness for the second day of the pre-season fighting.
Max Neukirchner was fastest Suzuki rider, third on the new offering from the GSX-R factory team, with Yukio Kagayama fifth, one place behind Haga.
The first public ride for Shinya Nakano on the Aprilia was promising, as he scored sixth best time, even ahead of his teammate Max Biaggi. He, like some other Italian World Superbike regulars, from the organizers and the media, had their flight from Europe cancelled the day before they were supposed to get to South Africa, and Biaggi came hotfoot from the airport. Despite missing half a day of action, he went seventh fastest, 1.2 seconds off the best of Fabrizio.
Ryuichi Kiyonari took his place as top Honda rider, eighth, one up on Troy Corser and two up on Ruben Xaus and their all-carbon coated S1000RR BMWs. Looking all racebike, and even a little unfinished, the new Beemer Superbike was still impressive enough to keep the pairing ahead of Carlos Checa, who was only 11th on his Honda.
Jonathan Rea, one of Checa’s teammates, was 12th, with only the unfortunate Sykes behind him. There was talk of Checa and Rea’s transponders not working properly after a period of time, and the team recording different times compared to the official ones.
Hannspree Honda Superbike riders Kenan Sofuoglu and Andrew Pitt were the only 600cc competitors on show, with Sofuoglu only a tiny bit faster than the 2008 champion.
Pitt was angered by what he saw as unfair riding by Biaggi, just after the red flags had been put out, as Pitt saw Biaggi come past him as he himself was trying to go into pitlane, and Biaggi started another lap by mistake, much to the chagrin of the startline officials.
Two more days of testing remain.
Rider Quotes
Michel Fabrizio: “I’m really pleased because it’s the first time I’ve lapped on this track. I feel sure I can go even quicker, I’ll try and do so in the remaining two days.”
Ben Spies: “I like this track; it’s almost like some AMA tracks and it’s not too technical, not that difficult to learn, but I was having a lot of fun riding on it. We were most interested in trying out the bike in hotter track conditions than in Portimao. The handling is good; the engine comes in really smooth exiting corners and it lays the power down well. Top end makes no difference in that situation and the engine really drives well from low down.”
Noriyuki Haga: “I had three crashes today but the first one was not my fault. I then had one highside and one front-end crash. I was just pushing and getting used to the bike and I think that the altitude here did not help me either. The Ducati now feels a lot more like a big bike than the Ducati I rode a few years ago. The team is very good, all very nice people.”
Max Biaggi: “I was delayed coming here so I only had half a day on the bike. It feels good so far, but we still have some work to do. It feels a little stiff over the bumps, and in corner entries it was not quite the way we want it yet. We have some new things to try compared to the previous test, I think also in the clutch. The bike is quite small and short and that makes it transfer weight, which can be a good thing or not. It is hard to say if the bike feels like some people say, like a MotoGP bike more than a Superbike, because I rode a twin last year and a WSB four the year before that. I think this bike feels halfway between a Superbike and a MotoGP bike. I think having Shinya in the team will help us a lot, because he has a lot of experience setting machines up, and the more experience the better. There were three possible choices of rider and my recommendation was for Shinya, so I am glad he is my teammate.”
