Kawasaki Racing Team riders Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes made the very best use of two days of dry and sunny conditions to complete their final European pre-season preparations at the Jerez circuit in southern Spain, between 26 and 27 January.

With so many new technical regulations in the 2015 eni FIM Superbike World Championship, and previous winter tests having been affected by poor weather, the Jerez tests took on a special significance.

A welcome 25°C track temperature arrived in the afternoons at Jerez meaning both Rea and Sykes made real progress in the set-up of their Ninja ZX-10Rs. Each declared they were ready to head off to Australia for the final official tests in buoyant and confident mood.

Lap times at Jerez were fully competitive for each rider, in both race and qualifying set-ups, with Sykes posting a best of 1’39.694 and Rea a 1’39.745, each on a qualifying tyre. This is below the existing track best, despite more stringent technical rules that limit engine tuning in 2015.

Tom set around 85 laps on day one and 86 on the final day, and Rea did more than 80 on day one and over 70 on the final day.

The KRT riders and team will have their next track engagement during the first official test sessions at Phillip Island in Australia, on 16 and 17 February, before the opening round of the 14-round series on Sunday 22 February.

Tom Sykes: “It has been a successful two days of testing and we have worked through a lot of variables, coming much closer to a base setting for the bike. In general I am very happy. We found more of our potential with the race tyre and the qualifying tyre and just did one final lap on each to understand the work we had done. That confirmed that we are headed in the right direction. The two last laps I did were quite relaxed, not expecting too much, and I saw some riders using more than one qualifying tyre - maybe even three. We are going to Phillip Island quite happy that we are focused on where we need to be and hopefully we will be fine-tuning in the glorious sunshine. It was important to have these two days of consistent weather and we did a lot of laps. The weather gave us a good stable test.”

Jonathan Rea: “It was a good test and more so because we got dry track time. We were able to evaluate lots of things. I tried quite a lot of geometries and changing the balance of the bike quite a lot. We never found a big difference in lap time, even when we were radically changing the bike. That proves to us that the bike is working in quite a big window. We found a big step forward with the engine management and electronics on the afternoon of the second day and I was able to improve my lap time quite a bit. That filled me full of joy and confidence. I was able to do a race simulation at this test and I understood how the bike behaves when the tyre drops. I think we have the right tools in the garage to keep working and be in good shape when the lights go out at Phillip Island. At the end of the day we tried a qualifying tyre and it works well on this bike. It has been a busy and positive test.”