PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
While Voltcom Crescent Suzuki’s Alex Lowes led the way on the final day of World Superbike testing at Phillip Island, the star may well have been Aprilia Racing Red Devils Roma rookie Jordi Torres by going third fastest with virtually no Superbike experience under his belt.
There were two other riders ahead of him in the end, Englishman Lowes and Northern Ireland’s Jonathan Rea on the factory Kawasaki (KRT). The top three were crammed into the same high 1:30 lap times, with Lowes setting the quickest mark of 1:30.859.
Lowes, a podium man in his rookie year, said of his testing triumph, “The GSX-R is pretty good now, we’ll make a few changes over the weekend depending on the temperature and some minor things to try with electronics and the chassis, but the biggest improvement still to come is from me and I know a few areas I can ride differently. I enjoyed it a lot today, did a race-run, put a lot of effort in and tried to keep within the limits.”
In third place Torres’ 1:30.971 lap was a remarkable feat of arms for a rider who is still learning his way around the Pirelli tires and whole new class of racing.
Behind the fast new World Superbike Spaniard (one of many this season) came 2013 World Champion Tom Sykes (KRT), only just outside the 1:30s. He was a late faller as his bike highsided him off at turn 11. As the battered but unbroken Yorkshireman said, not the place to fall off…
He was uninjured, if beaten up, and went out on his second bike to set the fastest split time in the first two sectors near the end of the day—only to lose a potential best lap in the third sector. He was fourth quickest, but so close to the top men as makes no difference.
Torres’ teammate Leon Haslam was a strong fifth overall, Aruba.it Ducati’s Chaz Davies an improving sixth, carrying on the British WSB connection to the hilt.
Davies’ teammate Davide Giugliano had unwillingly ruled himself out of the race this coming Sunday after suffering a huge highside late on day one. A scan showed two fresh fractures on his L1 and L2 vertebrae. Up and walking even right after his crash, he hopes to be fit to ride again at the new Buriram/Chang International circuit in Thailand next month. He was eventually tenth in the combined time sheets at these tests.
Last year David Salom won the Superbike Evo Championship and his reward was a full 2015 Superbike ride with Team Pedercini, and more than a pinch of support from Kawasaki.
He made use of it at these tests, taking his new bike to seventh in practice.
A small Spanish armada of riders who find a fast living in World Superbike in 2015 includes Nico Terol. He is learning his Althea Racing Ducati well and he went eighth, grinning fit to burst as he enthused about his big 1200cc Ducati.
World Supersport Champion and Superbike rookie Michael van der Mark was a more than respectable ninth for Pata Honda, but behind the injured Giugliano’s Ducati came another big V-twin, but not the kind you may imagine vying for a top ten sport that was only narrowly missed.
Niccolo Canepa we know as a fast Superstock and Evo rider, but absolutely nobody, event he man himself could have imagined he would finish two days of dry testing only 1.143 seconds behind the absolute fastest on his Hero EBR 1190RX.
Last year’s Hero EBR project was a brave, but a very definite fail. This year, in a team run by Larry Pegram and his former AMA team, Canepa ended up 11th of the 25 riders in testing, and ahead of the (admittedly injured and detuned) Sylvain Guintoli’s Pata Honda, plus Leon Camier’s theoretically faster MV Agusta and Leandro Mercado’s Barni Racing Ducati.
Mercado was doubly unlucky as he fell and broke his outer left metacarpal of his left hand, but avoided re-injuring his left scaphoid, after breaking it in Jerez testing last year.
Looking at any of the unexpected testing glories of many of the new rider and team combinations in 2015, what must surely be the most unpredictable and reshuffled season of World Superbike racing ever is about to start in a few days.
