Kawasaki Tests At Valencia
Gordon Ritchie | April 2, 2010
Despite the continued absence of Chris Vermeulen there was little time for the Kawasaki Racing Team to rest after the Portimao race last weekend before work started on the next round – scheduled for Valencia on April 11.Tom Sykes continued his work in developing the optimal race set-up of the Ninja ZX-10R, in conjunction with his British-based team, and for this test Simon Andrews was brought in to replace Vermeulen. On March 30-31, Sykes and Andrews enjoyed dry track conditions, but had to battle against strong winds at times. In typical Valencia fashion, the track surface delivered changeable grip during the days as temperatures went up and down, and the track surface was also not at its best.Also testing was the Pedercini Kawasaki team, including American Roger Lee Hayden.”We are finding a bit more consistency from the bike over race distance, which is good,” Sykes said. “I am happy to go back there to race and the direction we are going in is the same one that we have been going in all along. We did 101 laps on day one and 80-odd laps on day two, so we did a lot of work, especially as it was just after race weekend as well. I think we will go back to Valencia next week a lot fresher and hungrier. The track conditions were not the best, so I am looking forward to going there with the full grid of riders to get a nice clean track and, hopefully, not as much wind. All of day one was windy and the second afternoon.”
Gordon Ritchie | World Superbike Editor
You may not understand Ritchie and his Scottish accent if you had him on the phone, but you can definitely understand what he writes as our World Superbike editor.
