VOL. 54 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 31, 2017 P37
1:40.3—then came in and put
on the new front tire. With five
laps on the rear then I did low
1:40s again with the new front so
I think the potential of this tire is
good. It is the family of SC2 op-
tions, which is hard, and which
I liked before." Ominous for
some—Rea with a front tire that
may suit his natural riding style
even more than 2016's offerings.
The only other rider to get
into the '39s with Rea at Jerez
was second-year Aprilia rider
Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee
Aprilia) but he used a traditional
"one-lap" rear qualifying tire to
do so. Pirelli brought some new
multiple-lap qualifiers but few
opted to test them quite yet.
Despite this factor, Tom Sykes
(KRT)—admitting before the
Jerez tests that the increasingly
stock WorldSBK technical rules
and his traditional hard braking/
hard acceleration style meant he
needed to change his way of rid-
ing in 2017—was third fastest on
race rubber only; just like Rea.
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Rac-
ing Ducati World SBK) was fourth
fastest at Jerez but only just
inside the top 10 at Portimao.
Davies was fifth in Spain,
working on machine setup be-
fore sweeping all before him at
Portimao.
Portimao is back on the calen-
dar for WorldSBK after last being
a feature in 2015, but it is bump-
ier than ever and just as much of
an asphalt-coated Coney Island
fun-ride as it ever was.
Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee
Aprilia) was lucky to hobble
away from a collision at Jerez
(with WorldSBK rookie Randy
Krummenacher on his Puccetti
Racing Kawasaki) but he only
finished 14th in Spain as a result.
In Portugal, just a few days
later, he was second fastest,
one place up on his teammate
Savadori.
With Krummenacher injured
and missing the Portimao test,
regular BSB rider for Kawa-
saki Leon Haslam turned up in
Portugal on the Puccetti Ninja
ZX-10RR for an impromptu but
fruitful ride, going fourth fastest.
Leon Camier (MV Agusta) was
fifth in Portugal in his first 2017
outing.
A whole new Honda will
compete in the hands of Nicky
Hayden and Stefan Bradl in
2017 but it was not truly ready in
many way at Jerez and Portimao,
leaving Hayden in particular
very frustrated. Especially after
putting in a strong 2016 that
was only really supposed to be
preparation for 2017 and a more
race-focused street bike. He
was sixth in Spain but only just a
top-ten man in Portugal.
"It has not been a very positive
couple of days," said Hayden
about Portugal. "We hoped that
we could make some progress
and sort some things out but we
struggled much more here than
in Jerez. That is definitely not
how you like to leave the final
preseason test but that is what
we are up against. We were
struggling a lot with the power
here. It was really aggressive
and that was causing prob-
lems for edge grip and the bike
moving. Here, with many of the
corners being linked together,
we suffered a lot."
Gordon Ritchie
That face tells it all: Hayden
wasn't pleased after the tests.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
