News

Krummenacher climbing WorldSSP learning curve

Wednesday, 25 November 2015 12:55 GMT

    • Former Grand Prix racer alongside WorldSSP Champion.

    Randy Krummenacher was in Jerez this week for his first winter testing ahead of the 2016 FIM Supersport World Championship campaign.

    Next year, the Swiss rider will be on the grid of WorldSBK’s intermediate category for the first time, racing alongside four-time World Champion Kenan Sofuoglu on a Kawasaki ZX-6R for the San Carlo Puccetti Racing Kawasaki team.

    Following his two days of testing in Spain, Krummenacher was upbeat, not least as he felt good after running the Pirelli tyres for the first time.

    “In general the test was really positive,” began the former Moto2 rider. “(On Tuesday) I experienced the race tyre, which was really impressive in how much grip it had. For sure I did not make the maximum out of the grip because I was so surprised at how much grip there was. So next time I am sure I can improve my lap time, now that I have a bit of experience. We are already quite close to Kenan, which is really good, but we have a lot of work to do and we will keep on working. Only one test is done, but I’m not missing my past. I am here at the right time and in the right place.”

    Jerez is a circuit which holds good memories for Sofuoglu this year, as his race victory there in September set him up to clinch the title in France a fortnight later.

    “The last two days we have had a lot of work to do, but it was very positive work,” the Turkish rider was pleased to state. “I made a huge change on my bike, as I have different suspension now, and I put in a track record in this test. The bike has improved a lot and after two days the race simulation was also very fast and the consistency of the lap times was good. This was a very positive test and now I can relax over the winter because this was the first test for 2016 and we have started with an incredibly good pace. Our best lap here was half a second faster than my pole position time in 2015, with the same tyres. We also tried many other things and all the things we tried worked well. For us this was a very positive test for the whole team.”

    Sofuoglu’s rapid lap time on Day 2 came in the form of 1’43.009, with Krummenacher second on 1’43.639. Between them, they put in 131 laps on Tuesday.