P26
IN
THE
WIND
THE GENTLEMEN RESTART
THEIR ENGINES ////
W
ith the World Superbike
testing ban ending halfway
through January the top teams in
the championship lost little time
in getting back to work, especially with the start of the new
season coming so quickly – at
Phillip Island in Australia on February 23.
The Kawasaki Racing Team
took reigning World Champion
Tom Sykes and Loris Baz to
Almeria in Spain for two days
of largely dry and workable
weather, and they were joined
by the suddenly resurgent and
renamed Voltcom Crescent Suzuki team, with their duo of 2013
series runner-up Eugene Laverty
and current British Superbike
Champion Alex Lowes.
All riders on show
at Almeria put in good
lap times eventually,
with Sykes fastest on a
1:34.0 with a race rear
tire (and a troublesome
head and chest cold).
Baz did the same but
needed a qualifier to
do it and Lowes proved
fast yet again and at the
race-tire pace of Baz.
"We did over 80 laps
on the final day and I
Chaz Davies rode
the Ducati Panigale
to the sixth best
time in Portugal.
feel we have been making a step
forward," said Sykes. "I am tired
after this test and I was tired before I got here. The lap times are
very good, however, and that always helps."
No transponders mean claim
and counter claims for any of
the test times, but Laverty cared
little about his lap times as he
just wanted to get the all-new
electronics strategies produced
by new engineer Davide Gentile,
working before he and the entire
Suzuki team headed 450 miles
west to join the massed ranks of
teams and riders largely dodging
the rain at Portimao in Portugal.
Speaking after one day at Portimao, where he was quickest
World Superbike
rookie Alex Lowes
showed good pace
at the Portimao
Circuit and ended
up with the fastest
lap on his factory
Suzuki.
