Countdown to opening of British Superbike Championship after final test at Guadix

The final day of testing took place at Guadix in Spain yesterday, and the countdown is now definitely on to the first round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch, which takes place over the upcoming Easter weekend. The pre-season testing ended with some fantastic lap times, with the remaining teams upping the pace to beat the record time set by HM Plant Honda’s Josh Brookes, with the fastest lap time of 1m 13:6s on the second day. After initial problems with snow on the track, the conditions were much improved by the afternoon and the Swan Honda team saw James Ellison and Stuart Easton targeting longer runs and were consistently hitting the min to low 1m 13s lap times. Easton said: “It has been a successful test for us and I am really pleased with the work we have done both here at Guadix and from last week at Cartagena. We have refined the settings and we are now in a really good position before we start testing again later in the month. We have improved the bike so much from when we were here last year and my lap times were consistently coming. I did a good run of laps in the low 1m: 13s so we have seen a big improvement. We have another test coming up at Cadwell Park and after doing some longer stints today I think we should be ready for a strong start at the first round at Brands Hatch.” “We have really made some good progress out here in Spain and today we have managed to test so many different settings; we definitely are leaving here feeling happy. The Swan Honda seems to really fit me and I am feeling comfortable on track. We have been able to get some consistent laps together and the times have just been coming. It has been great working with the team again and they have done a fantastic job, we are now looking forward to getting back out on track again in the next few weeks.”Ellison added. After some initial problems on the final day, the Worx Cresent Suzuki team worked through some electronical changes and saw Tommy Hill and Yukio Kagayama formation flying and pushing through for some of their best laps on the day towards the end of the test. Simon Andrews upped his pace to dramatically improve his lap time after his second full day on the circuit and Gary Mason spent the day getting to grips with the Kawasaki. The MSS Colchester Kawasaki team are now busy preparing for the next testing round at Brands Hatch next Wednesday. Read article

 Subscribe