Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128145
Valencia World Superbike Test Neil Hodgson ended the test as the fastest privateer. His teammate James Toseland (52) crashed during the test but escapecllnjury. 1:40.047, set by his teammate Pere Riba in 2001. "This was the final official test and most of the teams were here, so it was interesting to compare my performance with other riders," Foret said. "To be fastest rider here is also very good for my state of mind. I am very confident. I am happy with my performance, but I know that it's the first race that really matters; this is only a test, and it will all be forgotten once the race starts. Now I want to relax, enjoy my racing and win." The general Supersport pace was, if anything, even more frantic than the Superbike one - nine inside the qualifying best and 18 inside the lap record. Alessio Corradi was the new star on the rise, the European Champion second fastest overall on his Team Italia Spadaro R6 Yamaha. Riba was third quickest, with Stefano Cruciani, Jorge Teuchert, and James Whitham filling the top six places. "I've been doing well at this test, all except on the final day," explained Riba. "I am coming down with some throat infection and it has affected my performance today. With race tires, I was lapping consistently fast and looking forward to trying some qualifiers on the last day. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the best use of them, and then crashed in turn two on the final session after pushing the front a bit too hard." Whitham had used his injured teammate Paolo Casoli's Belgarda Yamaha to great effect in the last few laps, and he went faster than his own setup had allowed, despite huge amounts of chatter. "I went out on Paolo Casoli's bike and the setup feels much stiffer than Pier-Francesco Chill rode his Ducat! at the test and showed that he can stili be a factor. 34 MARCH 13, 2002' cue I e n e _ os mine," Whitham admitted. "It turns a lot faster and easier, but it has much more chatter everywhere. But I could lap faster on his than on my own." Teuchert wasn't overly impressed with the test. But, then again, he wasn't upset with it, either. "Not so good, not so bad," he said. "We have been improving each day of the tests and of course we have been using engines with many kilometers on them, like we always do in testing. For the race: we will have fresh engines, so we should be able to go faster again." Ten Kate's satellite team, the Van zon pairing of Chris Vermeulen and Werner Daemen, was in good form, especially Vermeulen, who was seventh, ahead of Stephane Chambon and Katsuaki Fujiwara, on the Alstare Suzukis. Christian Kellner, the 2000 Valencia race winner, was 10th. Casoli, still struggling with his damaged finger, was credited with a best time of 1:39.225 and 11th overall, although it was actually set by Whitham, riding Casoli's machine before the transponders were switched. Colin Edwarels ended the . .ssion fifth fastest, though a lat....ssion crash hampered what would have been his best laps.