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Ducatis End Up On Top D espite suffering the continuing illeffects of his severe forearm injury, former World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss was only bested by his teammate Lorenzo Lanzi in the dry sessions during the two-day Pirelli test at Valencia in Spain, November 14-15. After a first-day weather washout, the expected rains stayed away on the second day; however, the bright sunshine took some time to dry the track well enough for each day. ''After the death of my father, I could not train so hard, due to family commitments, so I have come here without a full level of concentration," Lanzi said. "But after the first day, when I was fastest in wet conditions, I cleared my mind and pushed some more. We have tested the new Ohlins suspension this afternoon. For me, it made little truly meaningful tests to be carried out. Pirelli had brought 20 different spec tires for the assembled teams to test, and the the back end more consistent, as it last few hours were a flurry of activity for rear tire right away." all. Despite this, Pirelli did not get through all its options, and had to split the new specs between riders, instead of allowing A1stare Suzuki's Yukio Kagayama was third fastest at the test, lapping at I:36.3, marginally quicker than Yamaha's Noriyuki Haga. Winston Ten Kate's Karl Muggeridge was the fastest of the Hondas, with the Aussie lapping at 1:36.9. The new Ohlins shocks and forks, which appeared at Valencia, were finally put through at least some of their paces late on day two every rider the chance to test each one. Nonetheless, Pirelli staff were spared the nightmare of not testing any of their new dry tires at all. Lanzi, fastest of all the World Superbike men, started the 2006 season where he left off at the end of the 2005 version, despite the recent and untimely death of his father, Piercarlo, but it was Bayliss who created the most interest at this test. In the absence of his countryman Troy Corser (who did not ride on day two), Bayliss did no more than six laps at a time, and despite experiencing some weakness in his left forearm muscles, he set a highly respectable I:36.1 in his first Superbike ride for three full seasons. "I felt right at home on the bike; it felt like myoid bike," said Bayliss. "The hardest lap today was the first one, until I got used to the bike again. The engine feels a bit more powerful than last time, but I am getting used to the new tires, and I found a front that felt pretty good." Both Lanzi and Bayliss' times compared favorably with the best lap time on race difference to the front, but it made seemed to work better with the World Superbike were rife at Valencia, but a confusing array of signals came from not of testing, with both Ducati riders having a track of how many he was asked to try out. go, and the Yamaha Motor Italia pairing of Andrew Pitt and Haga trying out the fronts and rears separately. Haga, never a fan of the gas-charged shocks, was pleasantly surprised It was a common experience. Lanzi's Tuesday sessions were marred to by his experience, though he threw in a word of caution. "I spent most of my time testing front and rear tires, so there was no real way to com- pare the old and new suspension directly," Haga said. "We could not really play around with the suspension at the same time. My first impressions are that this fork is better than the first gas-charged ones we tried, but I don't know just how good." Pitt claimed, with some justification, that the last half-hour of the session was not long start with by a crash, but it appeared to focus his mind all the more for what was to follow. He was uninjured and went on to rack up over 50 laps. Craig jones was another faller, on the final comer late in the session, in his debut for the Foggy Petronas team. james Toseland had his first taste of dry conditions on his 2005 Honda on Tuesday, and although he was well off the top times, he was happy enough with his first test. "I'm quite happy, and I just wanted to get used to the bike and the track, and things were working really well," Toseland said. tions from the team seemed to point to the Camel money remaining in MotoGP. Ten Kate was more concerned with its second rider in World Supersport, its favorite appearing to be jurgen van den Goorbergh, but Honda Europe seems to favor Gianluca Nannelli, while the spon- "The structure of the team is working really sor's favorite could be Kenan Sofuoglu - in an effort to expand its markets in the German and Turkish territories. Alex Hofmann is still a target for the Austrian-based Klaffi Honda World Superbike team, but the problem at present is budget. The Klaffi squad was not at Valencia to test. tires from the 2005 season race weekend - enough to form any significant opinion on the new units. a 1:36.721, set by Corser on a Suzuki. Lanzi's 1:35.7, set after the wet condi- "It's based on what the GP guys had last year," said Pitt. well, and we haven't changed much from the base setup of the bike. It was set really just as Chris [Vermeulen) ran it. I'm not worried about knocking half-seconds off tions on day one and Tuesday morning, The Aussie worked on front tires in his time on dry track at VaJencia, almost losing times at this stage." Rumors of Alex Barros appearing in made the Italian rider the fastest man on only the Ten Kate team but from everyone involved. It is known that jTI Tobacco, owners of both the Winston and Camel brands, would like to strengthen the team, and if need be use the Camel money (which may well not reappear in MotoGP) for the World Superbike squad and Barros. Ten Kate could make a third bike, but indica- Gordon Ritchie Demuth Sweeps Denver Sellards Gets First National Arenacross Win josh Demuth swept the BooKoo Arenacross in Denver, Colorado, November 18-19. In doing so, he took over the lead Chad johnson saw his winning streak come to an end at the in the overall series points standings. In the 250 main event, Yamaha-mounted Tommy Hofmaster made his way past Honda rider Keith johnson and held the firstplace position throughout the majority of the race. A hard charge by Demuth, on the Babbitt Enxus Kawasaki, paid off in the final laps, as he overtook Hofmaster and locked up first place. Hofmaster finished the race in second, with johnson taking third. In the 4S0 main, johnson nailed the holeshot, but Demuth would go on to take the win, with Honda rider Tiger Lacey taking second and Hofmaster placing third. Suzuki rider josh Woods was making a move to the front when he suffered a nasty fall in the whoops. Woods ended up finishing 15th on the night, which dropped him out of the series points lead. He now sits five points behind Demuth, 189-1 B4. Lacey is third with 181 points. Lacey won the Dash For Cash, beating out a pair of joshes Woods and Demuth - to take home the BooKoo bucks. 12 NOVEMBER 30, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS third round of the Toyota AMA National Arenacross Series in Charlotte, North Carolina, November 18-19. At the Charlotte Bobcats Arena Arenacross on Saturday night, Team Thor/Honda/Tuf Racing's Brock Sellards took the main-event win, his first of the young season. johnson, Friday night's AMA Arenacross-c1ass winner, and the winner of the four previous AMA Arenacross class main events, has said from the beginning that it's going to be a long, hard-fought season. "Brock was on it Saturday," said johnson, who has five wins and one third-place finish so far. "I made a couple mistakes, and [then] gave it all I could to take the lead back from him, but I just wasn't able to put another win together. I can't wait to race him again when we get back to Rockford [Illinois)." "The racing's so tight," said Sellards, "that if you don't get an explosive start, it's tough to come through the pack, especially the way guys like Chad and my teammate jeff [Northrop) have been racing. My timing's coming around, and that showed on Saturday. The main thing is that I'm having fun. I got that first win out of the way and look forward to running it back here in a couple weeks at Rockford." johnson leads the points race with 145, followed by Sellards with I I3. Not to be overshadowed by Chad johnson, the series' other johnson - Kevin johnson - turned in a blazing- fast 22 AMA Arenacross-c1ass weekend and moved past North Carolina's jim Neese into fourth place in the overall standings, and he is just seven points off the overall podium. In the AMA Arenacross Lites class, Iowan Cody Gilmore proved his Wells Fargo Arenacross Lites-class win a couple of weeks ago was no fluke, as he took Saturday night's support-class win. Top AMA Lites-class racer Shawn Clark maintains the best overall speed in the class, though, as he captured the win on Friday and took second on Saturday. Pat Schutte