Althea BMW Racing Team had a steady two days in Andalucía, with both riders leaving with plenty more to test and work on for the remainder of the pre-season.  Markus Reiterberger and Jordi Torres continue to lead the team’s WorldSBK championship effort.

German Reiterberger was able to make some solid improvements on day one of the opening 2017 test. Noting down some pivotal alterations to be made on his BMW S 1000 RR, which himself and his team will be able to build on over the coming weeks. Not chasing a fast lap time, Reiterberger ended the two days 1.769s off Rea’s fastest lap.

Jordi Torres’ progress came crashing down the morning of day two, after a fast highside at turn three put a halt to his testing plan. Torres chose to sit out of the remainder of the day in order to prevent any extra injury. With Phillip Island now less than a month away, Torres suffered an injury to his right shoulder and preferred to rest up.
However he was able to take away a lot of information already from day one, with plenty to work on: “The most important thing at the moment is to adapt my bike to my riding style and also my riding style to my bike. We tried different settings to understand how the bike works in different situations. We also tested the Fortis swing arm a lot, and we have different set ups to try - but we don’t have any new important improvements at the moment.”

Referring to his crash he explained: "Luckily the pain is muscular and there is nothing fractured. Time to rest and recover! "

The team’s European Superstock 1000 team were also present; as young Italian Marco Faccani took to the track for only the second time aboard his S 1000 RR. Working on his relationship with the team, as well as understanding the bike he was able to record some solid data and strong lap times. However he was another victim of a shoulder injury on day two, which put a halt to his testing time.

Althea BMW Racing are hoping to bounce back from a difficult two days at their second test this weekend, returning to the Portuguese circuit of Portimao from 28^th-29^th January.