Te4 E N
NE)
Er
Ba liss
Leads
The Wa
l_\ucatr
Xerox s Troy Bayliss
once more set the targer for
lJhrs rivals to shoot for in preseason World
Superbike
testinS in Valencia, Spain, February
6-7, with the Australian
again rulinS the roost.
Bayliss lapped at l:34.9 on day one,
and
followed
it up on
day rwo with a l:34.37 while usint a qualifyinS
tire. His best
mce-tire lap ended up beinS a l:34.45 on the second
day
-
still lrnder Neil HodSson's best Superbike lap there
of
l:34.633,
set in 2003. Bayliss said he recalls lappin8 Valencia
at l:34.2 duriry the 2002 test season at Valencia,
even
if
that
time would not make it into any offi.ial record book.
Dry conditions and sunshine were constant
companions
for
che Superbike and Superspon teams in Spain, but
after
3130
p.m.
che track lost some of its outright grip, rneaning
that the lop runners resorted to
qualifiers
long before the
track action
had
ac(ualt finished.
Only the top Honda and Ducata riders got access
to
the
2006 raae
and
qualifyint
rubber at this test, as they were the
only development
teams
present.
Wins(on Ten
Kate Honda'sJames Toseland ended up with
the second-fastest
time on
qualifyint
rubber
(a
l:35.3), only
one ten(h
of a second ahead of Lorenzo Lanzi's best qualify-
ins-tire tame
on the second Xerox Ducati. ln race trim, Lanzi
was the second-fa5test rider
overall
(at
l:35.6), with a
Toseland dong a l:36.2
on day nvo
-
slower than his best
opening-day
time of l:35.8.
Toseland's
teammate Karl Muggeridge
did most of the
team's
testing and shakedown
session with different suspen-
sion
options on day one. but he
set a 1135.5 on soft rubber
Max Neukirchner
was arguably
the besr of the
private
James
Marshall from Dickinson, Texas,
was
seriously inlured
when he crashed in
tlle sec-
ond
Supercross-
