IN
THE
WIND
P26
HAYDEN ON THE PACE IN WSBK TESTING
T
he first two World Super-
bike test sessions for Nicky
Hayden on his World Super-
bike Honda CBR1000RR were
completed last week after he
added three full days at Jerez to
the two partial days of track time
he got at Motorland Aragon the
week before.
He had already impressed
his new peer group at Aragon,
despite the limited track time,
but in setting a personal best of
1:40.193 at Jerez, on a qualify-
ing tire, he was fourth fastest
overall. He was only behind the
two factory KRT Kawasakis and
at virtually the same pace as
Spanish rider, and fellow World
Superbike rookie, Xavi Fores
(Barni Racing Ducati).
After completing his 2015
test workload on his own for
the most part, as his new
teammate Michael van der
Mark had to pull out after only
a few laps, Hayden said, " We
have been really, really, busy.
The team worked incredibly
hard at this test with Michael
out. We had to check some
things that had to be checked
for reliability. We were very
lucky for the weather and after
Motorland Aragon we should
be thankful that we got in three
good weather days. I used
qualifiers today, more than
one, which is important be-
cause qualifying is part of race
weekend. It has been a long
time since I used one. I was
able to improve my lap times
with them and we also did
some long runs."
Hayden knows that the over-
all pace next year will be better
than in 2015 but he set a lap
time good enough to win Su-
perpole on a like-for-like basis
at Jerez, with a Q tire fitted. CN
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
Nicky Hayden is off to a
promising start in World
Superbike testing.
